Games Journalism Or Bust!

Commuter Games: God Of War: Chains Of Olympus

July 2nd, 2009 Posted in Feature | No Comments »

I know it’s Thursday, so it’s Licence To Grill day, but my posting schedule is completely out of whack. So enjoy an unscheduled Commuter Games…

God Of War: Chains Of Olympus

Format: PSP / Developer: Ready At Dawn / Publisher: Sony

Pick up and play? Mostly
After a loading screen or two, you’re straight into the game and doing what God Of War does best – cutting up foes in a variety of outlandish, unlikely, violent and – let’s face it – awesome ways. You’re never too far from the action, even when exploring the temples – an ambush is always a chamber or two away.

The only problem is if you leave this for a month or so, it can be disorientating as you work out where you’re meant to be going. If you’re following the storyline (I assume there is a storyline), there’s no way of recapping what you were doing or what has happened. Fortunately, the game is linear enough that you know where to go – if you’re wandering aimlessly and someone tries to insert a sword in you, you’re probably on the right track.

Much Accomplished? To an extent
If you view ‘accomplish’ as ‘a long line of blood-soaked corpses strewn along the cobbled courtyards and marble corridors’, then yes, you can achieve a lot. If, however, by ‘accomplish’ you mean ‘cleared an entire location, temple, etc’ then no, probably not. Levels are (commendably) large, and the presence of the obligatory push-block/pull-level puzzles and obstacles – plus, of course, combat set-pieces and bosses – means there is plenty to slow you down. If you don’t reach the next checkpoint before you need to turn off the PSP, your efforts will be for naught. Which leads me nicely to…

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The Ratings Game

June 16th, 2009 Posted in Comment, News | 8 Comments »

This afternoon, the Government declared that PEGI will now be the sole classification system for video games in the UK. And the crowd went wild.

Clearly, I must be missing something though. How is this triumph for the Pan-European Game Infomation ratings system going to make any difference? I’m not anti-PEGI, but then nor am I anti-BBFC - despite this being a hot political topic for our industry, I opted to not commit myself to one system or another, simply because I don’t think either of them work.

That’s not a failing on the part of the ratings boards involved. Far from it. As I’ve said before, both PEGI and BBFC ratings are more than clear to the casual shopper or the uninformed parent, and yet underage sales of violent video games are still a significant concern. Surely, rather than fussing over what symbols appear on the box, we should be investing this amount of time and speculation into the issue of educating the parents (the true culprits of underage gaming). Or enforcing stricter punishments for retailers, who clearly need to check how their employees assess a customer’s age.

This announcement changes nothing. From the way that people are reacting, you’d think that a brand new, revolutionary and fool-proof ratings system had been announced, but it’s the same old PEGI ratings we already have. Granted, reports are claiming there will be a new system developed between PEGI and the Government, but it’s almost certain to be shockingly familiar.

“The new system will consist of five age categories and a series of pictorial boxes, describing content such as bad language or violence”, reports my colleagues at MCV. Can someone please tell me how that is any different to the current BBFC or PEGI systems?

The only real difference is that rather than having two systems that don’t work, we now have one. Young gamers are still going to get their hands on the Grand Theft Autos and Gears Of Wars of this world. Either through ignorant parents who still cling to the previous millennium’s misguided notion that games are for kids, or through their own means. After all, you can set up a debit card from the age of 11 nowadays - what system of checks is there on online retailers such as Play.com to prevent underage consumers purchasing 18-rated games?

I recognise this is a step forward for our industry, but nothing more than that. It is one step forward after years of taking two steps backwards.

Is Ghostbusters doomed to fail?

June 14th, 2009 Posted in Comment, News | No Comments »

Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

It may sound a bit extreme but that’s probably how most Ghostbusters fans that don’t own some form of PlayStation felt when Sony announced the upcoming game would be temporarily exclusive to PS3 and PS2. Gamers with a Wii, DS, Xbox 360 or PC have to wait until “later this year” - or so we thought.

Reports have emerged that the Xbox 360 version is not region locked, leading both journalists and gamers alike to believe that the majority of 360 owners will import the game. I’m not convinced that’s the case.

While I know a couple of fans who are determined to do so, if only to punish Sony for ridding them of their stream-crossing delights, is the number of importers really going to be significant enough to make a difference? It’s an expensive option, and almost too much like effort for the lazy nature of gamers. Some believe independent retailers stand to profit by grey importing, but again, can they afford to do so in the current climate?

This leads to me wonder if the game will even be a success - or at least on the scale that the various publishers before Sony were hoping? The Ghostbusters game was set to be one of the most significant multi-format releases of the summer, which is traditionally quite a quiet period in terms of high quality releases. Now that the game is set for “later this year” (which is most likely to be Q4), it is going to face tougher competition than it would have done in June.

Can Ghostbusters honestly stand up to the likes of BioShock 2, Halo 3: ODST and the usual annual treats of Guitar Hero, Call Of Duty and FIFA? Unlikely, especially given that interest will have diminished significantly in the six months after the PlayStation releases - are gamers going to be excited about a game that their PS3-owning friends have had access to since summer?

It’s a shame given the quality of the game, but while Sony’s coup will boost the PS3 and PS2, it may well have irreparably damaged Ghostbusters’ chances of making a mark on the other consoles.

Licence To Grill: LEGO Indiana Jones

June 11th, 2009 Posted in Feature | No Comments »

Yes, it’s back. Licence To Grill returns with a double licence special. LEGO Indiana Jones not only uses the Indiana Jones licence, charting the course of the three movies (yes, three!), it also uses the Lego licence, the beloved toy that has delighted children (and many adults I know) for generations. So not only will I be looking at whether or not the Traveler’s Tales title does justice to the exploits of everyone’s favourite archaeologist (and, lest we forget, I’m a massive fan of Dr Henry Jones Jr), I’m also looking at how well it represents the toys.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Format: XBox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, DS, PSP / Developer: Traveler’s Tales / Publisher: LucasArts, Activision Blizzard

Characters
Indy: Good, mostly - Indiana Jones himself has all the abilities you would expect. The whip, the bar brawling-style of fighting. He has been robbed of his ability to dig, but that’s so that the digger class has a unique ability. The academics, such as Marcus Brody, are armed with umbrellas - while they didn’t appear much in the films’ action scenes, this does at least make sense. Marion seems to now have control over the monkey, despite the animal’s independence being key to the film’s plot (okay, I’m getting nitpickey). The point is, no one does anything you wouldn’t expect.

Lego: Spot on - They’re all made up of the pieces you would expect, mirroring the existing Lego Indy toy range and the general Lego style. The only thing they’re lacking is the trademark yellow faces, but then it wouldn’t look like Indy and co.

Locations
Indy: Ok - Not exactly the same layout from the films’ sets, but this can be attributed to the limits enforced by the Lego gameplay (i.e. the need to travel from left to right). That said, like the Star Wars editions before it, the decor is close enough it doesn’t matter. Your fanboy eyes accept the nightclub to be Club Obi-Wan, the airship to be the same one from The Last Crusade.

Lego: Could be better - Sadly it’s still pre-rendered backgrounds that are made to look like rock, grass, sand, etc. It means that the plants and piles of bricks and anything else that looks like it is made of Lego stands out too much from the rest of the environment. It’d be nice to play a Lego game where everything is made from the toys, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the level editor in Lego Indy 2 to realise that.

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Too Late To The Party

June 10th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 3 Comments »

The release of Final Fantasy VII on PSN means I am finally able to play the renowned RPG for the first time. Twelve years after the game stunned audiences around the world, and I have only just blown up the first Mako reactor.

Now for those who have played the game over and over again, I imagine you envy me. I get to experience the joys you still hold dear for the first time. Sadly, I feel I will never be able to appreciate them in the same way as you once did. Read the rest of this entry »

Nintendo’s Finger On The Pulse

June 9th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 2 Comments »

Arguably the most controversial unveiling of this year’s E3 2009 was the Wii Vitality Sensor. On the face of it, it may not seem that controversial - after all, it’s the natural extension of the fitness and self-improvement peripherals that have been presenting themselves over the last few years: the Balance Board, EA Sports Active’s support band, the Activity Meters. But compared to the rest of the announcements made, the pulse-checking add-on caused a bigger stir than anything else.

The initial reaction to the Vitality Sensor, from journalists and fanboys alike, was ‘what the fuck?’. Over the course of the week, when rational thought took over from instinctive reaction, this became ‘what’s the point?’. What can the pulse contribute to gameplay? What effect will it have on the games we enjoy?

Well, for a start, ‘game’ is obviously the wrong term to use with this particular piece of equipment. If you’re even vaguely aware of Nintendo’s changing direction since the advent of the Wii and the success of Brain Training, you’ll know that ’software’ is more accurate. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn’t show any, so it’s up to us ever-imaginative gamers to come up with ideas for how the Wii Vitality Sensor could be used.

Let’s have a punt, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

The Danger Of Teasing

May 19th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 2 Comments »

An announcement can potentially be the best tool in a games company’s PR inventory. Done well, and the simple tease of what is to come will capture both the attention and the imagination of your intended audience, but handled badly and it can only serve to damage the product you’re announcing.

Two recent examples spring to mind. The first is Thief IV (not Thi4f!). Eidos has been hinting that a fourth instalment in the greatest stealth-‘em-up series ever made (bar none) has been in the works for over a year. The use of the series’ recognisable fonts in teaser advertisements, the oh-so-subtle suggestion that Eidos Montreal’s new recruits will get to work on a triple-A title beginning with T – anyone with half a brain knew that Thief 4 existed.

In the latest issue of Edge, the studio’s advertisement promised it’s “second secret project” would be revealed on May 11th – and so the anticipation built. Countless Thief fans like myself started wondering who the main character would be, what the link to the previous games would be, how the game would be structured, what perspective it would play from.

And what did we get for our fanatical mutterings, and our devotion to a criminally underplayed series? Confirmation that the game we knew was already in production is in fact in production. And a logo. A bad logo, that erroneously substitutes a letter with a number. Needless to say, disappointment doesn’t even come close to describing how I felt.

Then we come to today’s little debacle. Read the rest of this entry »

T4king H31n0uz Libert13z

May 16th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 2 Comments »

As a graduate of journalism, an avid reader and an aspiring writer, I can be more than a little picky about the English language. So it’s becoming increasingly irksome to see the liberties games publishers take with their titles.

Two points I’d like to go over:

Capital Letters do not make your game more exciting
Clearly, we’ve given up trying to iron out the gaping holes in gameplay and design and we’re putting all of the excitement into the box art. But putting capital letters into your title willy nilly does not make the game more prominent. Admittedly, most titles are printed in upper case on the box, but that doesn’t mean this needs to be the case in articles and press releases.

Codemasters’ racing series can be excused because they’re nice short words like FUEL and GRID - although that doesn’t mean they can throw in a lower case letter just to make it stand out (I’m looking at you, DiRT). But Sony’s Infamous (sorry, inFAMOUS)? Completely unnecessary. And it makes any article look ugly on page. It detracts from a smooth reading experience. More importantly, it changes the pronounciation of the word - it looks like ‘in-FAY-mus’ rather than the correct ‘IN-fum-mus’. Seriously, Sony, what does that achieve?

Numbers should only ever be used as numbers
Thiaf? What the in the name of Nolan Bushnell’s balls is Thiaf? It’s Thief, Eidos. Thief. As in person that perpetrates theft, making them a thief. Tee Haych Eye Eee Eff.

Using numbers to replace letters may be something that was originally made fashionable on forums and the like, with their n00bs and pwning of j00 and their 1337 skillz (that’s ‘leet’ for us who have half a brain cell). That doesn’t mean it should be used in game titles. It just smacks of trying to ‘get down wif da kidz’, something that should never, ever be a motive for any form of marketing initiative.

If you insist on using these numbers in your titles, do so correctly. Actually get some half-witted teenage delinquent to tell you which number corresponds to which letter. For example, 4 is A. And possibly H. It is not an E. As was demonstrated by Driv3r (Driver 3, in english) - and even then it didn’t make a terrible game any cooler.

Thief 4, or more accurately, Thief IV is the biggest announcement for me this year. It is what I’ve been waiting for over the last five years. And now you’re taking away the series’ class, tone and generally high level of self-respect by calling it Thi4f?

Both these rules must be obeyed. Breaking them is not cool, and it is not clever. It just makes your company look moronic.

Needed: All Access Pass

May 12th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 4 Comments »

It is a time of mourning. My Far Cry 2 save, the best part of three months work (on and off - I’m not a total invalid) has been bricked.

While assaulting a radio station, I was mowed down by a passing Jeep. When asked to load or quit, I selected ‘load last save’. The Xbox 360 froze. I tried turning the console off via the Home/Logo button but it wouldn’t respond. Since it was loading, I figured turning the console off via the power button couldn’t corrupt the file, so foolishly I turned it off. Once booted up again, the game kept freezing every time it started to load.

So that’s it. My adventures in a war torn African state, my brief stint with malaria, and my time put into one of the most enjoyable FPS games I’ve played in years is gone. Completely. And mere days before a patch was released to prevent this from happening.

But is my loss an unnecessary one?

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Playing Without Playing

May 6th, 2009 Posted in Comment | 1 Comment »

One of the biggest annoyances in my life at the moment is that I never seem to have enough time for gaming. Despite working in the games industry, it seems like I’m only able to fit in a couple of hours per week, and the rest is taken up by work, podcasting and other commitments. And yet, as I discovered the other day, sometimes you can have just as much fun when you’re not even playing.

I dont’ know what it is about gamers, but we can’t just sit and watch: we have to interact. Maybe it’s because we’re so used to being in control that we can’t handle relinquishing that to someone else. When you’re watching a film, you don’t start theorising about what happens next. When someone is reading a book, you don’t tell them when to turn the page or which paragraphs to skip.

But when I sat down to watch my housemate’s girlfriend playing Fable II, I felt compelled to suggest she do next. So did her boyfriend. And our other housemate. Initially, it started off as simple tips (”Hold the right trigger and draw in that XP before it fades away”), then it became a little more suggestive (”Ah, if you head over to that statue, there’s a quest there”), and eventually it transcended the line between suggestion and instruction (”Go into that shop and buy ‘Come Hither, Dear’).

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