Games Journalism Or Bust!

Never Too Old

August 14th, 2008 Posted in Comment | 2 Comments »

Like almost any gamer worth their salt, I have experienced the original Wolfenstein. I probably enjoyed the first nine levels of the first shareware episode than I have the last five years of first-person shooters, simply because it was all so new and exciting at the time.

And yet, the new Wolfenstein doesn’t excite me at all. Neither did Return To Castle Wolfenstein, the eagerly anticipated sequel of a few years back. Confusingly, it’s because the new title, like it’s predecessor, is trying to be too new and exciting.

As enjoyable as Return To Castle Wolfenstein was, I just couldn’t connect it in my mind to the original pseudo-3D FPS. The first couple of levels were fine, especially the first moment where you find yourself standing over the mangled body of a Nazi soldier with nothing but a knife in hand, but as soon as you left the castle it felt like you were playing a different game. Somewhat symbolically, perhaps, the journey by cable car marked a considerable decline in my appreciation for the game.
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Junk In The Trunk

August 12th, 2008 Posted in Comment | 2 Comments »

I’m back and I’m in business. Having spent a week away, I’m still intergrating myself back into the daily grind, and as a result, my blogging has suffered. Still, let’s have a bash anyway…

Upon my return from my time away, I lacked the energy to do anything but play games. As a result, I finished the second half of BioShock in a day - somewhat suprisingly, given that the first half took me four months. I could spend a whole post on what a fantastic game it is, why it needs to be played by everyone and so forth, but instead I want to talk about loot.

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WiiDS Episode 67: The Nintendo Difference

August 11th, 2008 Posted in Podcast | No Comments »

- We’re Back!
- Question Of The Week: Favourite Bad Game?
- News
- Ex-Nintendo Xbox Rep: Wii is a gimmick
- Saints Row Wii: A bad idea
- Nintendo finds holographic storage solution?
- MotionPlus not exclusive to Nintendo
- Iwata: Miyamoto out of ideas
- Main Discussion: The Nintendo Difference
- Are Nintendo trying too hard to be different?
- Has this caused them to miss out on certain markets/successes?
- Virtual Console Releases
- What We’ve Been Playing
- Online Section
- Emails
- New Members
- Topic of the Week: Forum awards

www.wiids-podcast.com

DOWNLOAD HERE

Would You Kindly

July 23rd, 2008 Posted in Comment | 3 Comments »

[Spoiler Alert: This post discusses one of the crucial moments in BioShock’s storyline. Despite the game being over a year old, I’m aware there are plenty of PS3 owners and people like me yet to complete this epic title, and have no intention to ruin anything for them.]

I’ve given up fussing over which games I haven’t completed (see Ze List) and decided to knuckle down and fix this. First on Ze List are BioShock and Phoenix Wright, if only because these are not mine. While I’ve had cronogenesis’ copy of the DS lawyer-‘em-up for a little over a month and made my way to the penultimate case, I’ve had the office copy of BioShock for close to six months, and I’m only halfway through. Completing it has become something of a priority.

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E3: Eventually Everything Ends

July 17th, 2008 Posted in Misc | 1 Comment »

Am I the only one who thinks this year’s E3 has been a massive anticlimax this year?

I write this after the Nintendo and Sony press conference; traditionally the end of E3 to me, since the majority of the ‘big reveals’ occur at the console manufacturer’s presentations. As an avid Nintendo fan, my anticipation has been building for the last few months, and I was expecting their media briefing to be something of a highlight. Pouring over everything they revealed, I had to ask: Is that it?

This is not going to be another rant on how Nintendo are only catering for the casual market rather than the hardcore, if only because that horse has been, perhaps unfairly, flogged to death. Truth be told, I was unimpressed by all of the Big Three’s conferences.

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Preview: Quantum Of Solace

July 17th, 2008 Posted in Career, Comment, Preview | 2 Comments »

The final embargo broke this week, allowing me to finally discuss Quantum Of Solace, the first James Bond game to be published by Activision (or Activision Blizzard as they’d probably prefer to be known).

Most of the details you already know. The game takes its title from the upcoming Bond film but draws its content from both 2006’s Casino Royale and its sequel, charting the complete rise of the New Bond in video game form. Despite the misleading screenshots showing off the relatively well-rendered Daniel Craig, the game is primarily a first-person shooter, provoking both an almighty cheer and inevitable comparisons to Goldeneye within the James Bond fanbase.

However, while EA’s first-person Bonds were severely flawed, suffering from ping-pong ball bullets, short linear levels, a penchant for hand holding, I remain quietly confident that this one will be much better, if only because it’s in the safe hands of Call Of Duty developers Treyarch (not quite Infinity Ward, but it’s a start) and runs on the proven Call Of Duty 4 engine.

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WiiDS Episode 66: Pre-3 Live - Part II

July 15th, 2008 Posted in Podcast | No Comments »

Here it is: the second part of the first ever WiiDS Podcast to be recorded live. Picking up where we left off, the team continue to speculate about the big game rumoured to be arriving this Christmas, as well as coming up with a few ideas of our own about what we’d like to see hit shop shelves.

After that, we move on into What We’ve Been Playing with a brief hint of the shennanigans we got up to and James can finally discuss that title he’s had under embargo. Can you guess what is is?

Throw the likes of emails, virtual console releases, forum members, and topic of the week into the mix and the most epic episode of the WiiDS Podcast so far is finally complete. Enjoy!

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WiiDS Episode 66: Pre-3 Live - Part I

July 14th, 2008 Posted in Podcast | No Comments »

This week, we have a very special show for you as we present the first ever live episode of The WiiDS Podcast. Recorded from a flat somewhere in the heart of Essex, the episodes features James, Tom, Mani and Dippy together for the first time. Along with all the usual banter, we covered the latest news, including rumours of a widescreen DS, a Wii version of Animal Crossing, Epic’s comments on the Wii and UK trade body ELSPA’s stance on those dreaded R4 cards.

The majority of the show is taking up by the main discussion in which we speculate over what we could be seeing from Nintendo at this year’s E3, including Reggie’s Big Game and a range of listener suggestions. As you would expect, the inane banter inherent to the podcast ensued with four hosts in the same room, so the second half of the main discussion, plus all of the usual segments, will be released later this week.

We apologise for any discrepancies in the audio quality, but the nature of recording live and channeling four microphones into a single feed means a slightly reduced quality that could not be fixed in the edit. We hope you enjoy the show.

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Speculation And Rumour

July 11th, 2008 Posted in Misc | 1 Comment »

I have to agree with CVG: Capcom UK’s comments on Dead Rising 2 could well be one of the best PR responses ever.

We don’t comment on speculation and rumour. And you know we don’t comment on speculation and rumour. So why are you asking me to comment on speculation and rumour?

I should think that our policy on speculation and rumour is fairly well known by now and as such, any request by you for me to comment on speculation and rumour will result in no comment. So no comment, because this is purely speculation and rumour.

Cutting The Cutscenes

July 10th, 2008 Posted in Comment | No Comments »

I have made peace with Metal Gear Solid.

Unlike what seems to be the majority of the game-playing world, I have never rated the epic series very highly. I’ve played through the entirety of the GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid and attempted to play Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, so it’s not like I have no experience of the series to base this on. Don’t get me wrong – they were enjoyable games and I can see why people go crazy over them, but for me, any game where you have to sit for 45 minutes before being allowed to start playing (MGS3:S) or get to play for a mere 10 minutes in the final hour-and-a-half (MGS:TTS) is not for me.

I loved the cutscenes, of course. The story was well developed, well written, the acting is all top-notch and the novel Codec mechanic gives the game a unique style, but when the controller in my hand gathers dust between playable sections, it’s time for the developers to decide which industry they’d rather work for: games or films.

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