Viva la Revolution?

A Guest Article by Frasier

The Wii, according to whom you talk to, is either a brilliant piece of kit that offers almost limitless fun, or a gimmick that lacks both games and potential. Setting aside these two irreconcilable viewpoints, I think it is important to answer one question about the Wii – namely, what, if anything has it changed?

The Wii’s codename was the Revolution. To its detractors this showed Nintendo as an arrogant corporation that was more interested in PR than making consoles. To its fanboys, it was an indication that the mighty Gods Reggie and Miyamoto were still as committed as ever to changing the games industry as they always have. This was, after all the company that made water, marmite and Jesus Christ all at the same time, wasn’t it?

When the Wii was unveiled, the idea definitely looked the real deal. Motion sensor technology was set to revolutionise the way we played games, and the mysterious Wii channels seemed to be the answer to the problem of impersonal consoles. Heck, the thing didn’t even have a hard drive.

But there’s something important to note here, and that was how the Wii was announced. Rather than focus on these potentially “change the industry forever (or at least until the next big thing comes out)” aspects, again and again the focus, certainly on the surface, was on the zany name (“I’m desperate for a Wii” cried millions of gamers), the Apple-lite looks, and some of the more casual games. With perhaps the exception of Zelda: Twilight Princess, more attention was put on Wii Sports than any other game. Some early commentators put this down to a lack of knowledge about the console; once it was released, they’d argue, we’ll stop talking about the ever so slightly erotically proportioned controller, and start talking about the games, and proper games as well.

It never quite happened. It’s true that Nintendo have released several games from their big franchises already. Metroid Prime 3, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Mario Galaxy and the aforementioned Zelda: Twilight Princess all tick that box. But here’s the thing: these games have produced nothing like the reaction that more casual titles on the Wii have. Take Wii Fit; at £70 a pop it’s expensive, and in all honesty not exactly long lasting. And yet, despite this, it’s sold out, month after month since it was first released in April.

Who’s buying games? Personally, I have no idea. I’m probably one of the few people who knew more people who had a Gamecube than I know people who presently own a Wii. In fact, of all the people I know well enough to know their gaming habits, only two people own a Wii. One of them is me. I don’t own Wii Fit, the other person, who incidentally is not someone who has owned a console before, doesn’t play except with friends, and is a girl, does. As I lack analogical data, and games sales data available to me does not break down into demographs, I can only really make a (not very educated guess) about who’s buying Wii Fit. I’m thinking that the chief demograph for this game is represented much more closely by my female friend than by me. That’s not a criticism – if anything it’s more of a realisation. The most popular game of this year on the Wii has not been Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, or even FIFA. It’s been Wii Fit.

For the first time ever, the mainstream media have been talking about games in another capacity than their ability, like movies and Kurt Cobain before them, to give angry teenagers an excuse to hurt themselves and others. They were talking about the Wii’s potential as a fitness trainer, its new control system and the families who were now buying it.

Does this show that the Wii has changed the industry forever? It would be a cop out to write it’s too early to say, but maybe it is. The Wii certainly has created a buzz around games, and is definitely getting new people to try them. This is all great news for the industry. But what follows the Wii? Will we see a console that will consolidate this new audience effectively? And what about Microsoft and Sony – has the Wii done enough to convince them that next time they’ll have to make comparable consoles to compete with Nintendo?

All this is for the future, but one thing is for sure; the Wii has changed, for the moment at least, the way people view games; it’s made them something that are perceived for everyone. The brand is incredibly strong, the look is sleek and efficient, and the wider media are talking about it. It is this, more than anything else, which makes the Wii, not the PS3, the spiritual successor to the PlayStation. Like it or not, the casual gaming family is here to stay.

Continue reading Viva la Revolution?

GTA Retrospective III - Grand Theft Auto III

• Game: Grand Theft Auto III
• Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 2001

While the original Grand Theft Auto was a revolution in gaming for the whole industry, GTA III would become more of a revolution of the series, but would have just as much impact as the original when it was released. You see, even though the move into 3D seemed the next logical step for GTA, Rockstar pulled it off with aplomb, whilst using the rather restrictive technology of the PS2. To squeeze this massive 3D world out with hardly any loading screens to kick you out the game, Rockstar, instead of just trying to get the best looking game out onto the shelves, sacrificed the best graphics it could muster from the PS2 for a free-flowing game, all set in an absolutely huge game world. Never before had such a massive and rich game-world been delivered. Grand Theft Auto is all about freedom, and never more-so had a game given this to its players than Grand Theft Auto III.

At its heart, GTA III was still very much a GTA game, as everything you could do in the previous titles was there; steal cars, shoot guns, evade police, etc. There was even a top-down camera angle à la the original game, which, was probably for those who preferred the original games, but more likely that it was the original viewpoint of the game which was eventually dropped in favour of the conventional 3rd person camera. The game also added layers upon layers of extra things to do, to give a little more depth to a world that had come alive in 3D. Hijack a taxi and you could then start a mini-game where you could drive around Liberty City and pick up fares. Get them to their destination within the allotted time and you got paid for your services. This mini-game was the basis for the game Crazy Taxi, yet here it was in a game that let you do this and much more. In Crazy Taxi, if you got bored, you couldn't just get out of the taxi and blow it up, or drive it off a cliff with your passenger trapped inside just for a laugh or just because you could. Moreover, if you hijack an ambulance, you could search for patients to take to the hospital. 'Jack a cop car and you could take out criminals trying to muscle in on your territory. 'Jack a fire engine and you could put out fires from the safety of your truck thanks to the roof-mounted hose. All of these mini-games earned you money for completing each level of them and they got increasingly difficult with every level, in true gaming fashion.

Apparently, the dude you play as is called Claude, even though it's never mentioned in the actual game

Also, for the first time in a GTA game, your character had a back-story and the game had its own discernible plot that revolved around your character, even though he never talked and apparently didn't have a name (however, there is some speculation that his name is Claude). The game opens with 'Claude', his girlfriend, Catalina (who would make an appearance in GTA: San Andreas along with 'Claude') and an accomplice robbing a bank. Catalina then betrays 'Claude' and shoots him, leaving him to die. However, 'Claude' doesn't die, and gets arrested. Whilst being transferred, an attack on his police convoy aimed at freeing another prisoner sets him free along with another prisoner named '8-Ball'. With each other's help, they flee the scene, with 'Claude' driving the getaway car as 8-Ball's hands are bandaged up. To thank 'Claude', 8-Ball introduces him to Luigi Goterelli, who owns the night-club 'Sex Club 7.' Luigi sets our hero off on various menial jobs, but 'Claude' uses these to rise in power with the various gangs of Liberty City and to eventually get revenge on Catalina.

Another other the features added: Racing!

GTA III garnered a lot of controversy when it was first released, as have all GTA games since. Most notably, though, was GTA III's introduction to the series of prostitutes. Bloody violence comes second to sex in the controversy stakes, despite the fact that we're all more likely to experience first-hand the delight and pleasure of sex than we are to come across a gun-fight racked with bloodshed or to see someone getting decapitated by a sword. Without getting into too much detail about the game's controversial issues, the fact that the inclusion of hookers in the game caused more uproar than the fact that, in the same game, you can blow someone's head off with a shotgun is really quite baffling, especially when the act of sex isn't even shown and only ever implied.

Despite all the controversy, GTA III burst the series into the mainstream. Its predecessors were popular, but were far more underground that the third title in the series. As of March 26th 2008, GTA III has sold 14.5 million units according to Take-Two Interactive. An astounding figure. It has also influenced a fair few games since its release, but we'll save that for another day. Needless to say, the impact of GTA III is still being felt today, whether from the game itself, or its sequels.

Coming up: we get our 80's on with one of GTA III's aforementioned sequels: GTA: Vice City.

Continue reading GTA Retrospective III - Grand Theft Auto III

Summer of Sonic

A Guest Article by Master Hunter

Remember the nineties? When Gaming really started to take off and icons were born. When online gaming was only a dream and we didn't need achievements to enjoy our games. There are so many things that happened during this decade; the birth of the Playstation, the golden age of the SNES and Mega Drive, analogue sticks and 3D gaming started to become commonplace.

The age was defined by the mascots as in June 1991 Sega answered Nintendo by creating a much loved character to counter Mario. A new mascot designed to be the anti-Mario. Someone fresh, new, exciting and would take the gaming world by storm. In 1991 Sega created Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now this isn't yet another discussion on how the games have been seemingly getting worse and worse, or how the game series does not work in 3D. That has been done to death. You see despite Sonic's clear decline in quality the fan community is still as strong as ever.

Thousands still have faith in the 'blue blur' and that faith was rewarded in the first ever Sonic-only convention, Summer of Sonic (www.summerofsonic.com). Masterminded by The Sonic Stadium's (http://www.sonicstadium.org/) Dreadknux, it was intended to be a free for all, small gathering of Sonic fans to celebrate the hedgehog's 17th birthday.

Held a little later than the official date of Sonic's birthday (23rd June), on 9th August 2008, in Dragon's Hall Community Centre in the heart of London, a tiny non air conditioned room was packed with hundreds of Sonic fans. Two of these fans are TGN regulars, Siriku who was helping out as staff and myself. So here's my account of the day:

I gave myself plenty of time to find the place, checking out of my hotel an hour or so earlier than the estimated start time. I arrived 30 minutes before it was due to start and found only one person (two if you include his dad) queuing to get in. I wanted to experience everything, planning to be there from start to finish.

The queue started to get big near the planned start time of 10am. It took a little longer for the event to get started, at around 10:30am the doors opened. As soon as the first person walked through the large double doors the music started as the Sonic 1 title theme blasted out of the speakers.

The first thing anyone noticed, I'm sure, was how small the room was. Dreadknux had seriously underestimated the support this event got. The website alone had enough confirmations to pass the safety limit for the building and you couldn't help but wonder how everyone was going to fit.

Everyone received a goody bag with a T-shirt, a couple of SEGA branded pens, a SEGA sticker, a SEGA branded neck strap and a SEGA key ring, as well as getting their hand stamped with the SEGA logo.

To the right was a Wii with Sonic 3 on the go. Next to that was the Guinness World Record table where you could try for the fastest time on Emerald Hill zone Act 1. Beyond that was a Wii pod with Sonic and the Secret Rings available to play, and a DS pod with Sonic Chronicles ready to play. Next to that on the far wall was a glass cabinet holding all sorts of cool rare merchandise. Left of that was the comics stand with numerous Archie and Fleetway comics available to read.

To the left on the far wall was a collection of websites printed out, showing various creations from the Sonic fan community. In front of that in the far left corner was the art corner where attendees were encouraged to draw anything they liked for the art contest. Finally next to that was the main stage where more or less everything happened.

After a couple of games of Sonic 3 and an attempt at the Emerald Hill record, I made my way over to Sonic Chronicles. First off all, if you're expecting a Sonic game, DON'T. It is nothing like traditional Sonic. It's about as fast as any other JRPG, maybe just a little faster than Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The over world controls very much like Phantom Hourglass being more or less entirely stylus controlled. Monsters are in plain sight so no random encounters thank god. Sections like giant loops are done by simply tapping a button.

Combat is fairly simple, again all stylus controlled. Special moves all have an Elite Beat Agents quality to them, as you tap and slide your stylus across the screen for added effect. This goes for defence as well as offence. Sometimes the enemy will run and you'll have to chase them, taking you for an on-rails running section, where you tap the screen to jump over boxes.

It was a bit confusing on where to go, but I found the first boss (I think) and defeated him fairly easily as his attacks were deadly but often missed. I left it for someone else at this point and, while I found it enjoyable, I don't think the short play I had of it was enough to give judgement. It just feels like a pretty solid traditional-style JRPG to me.

It didn't take long to look at everything available and by the time I got through everything, the room was starting to get really full. I had played Sonic Chronicles, did the Emerald Hill challenge (31 secs) and won a few rounds of Sonic 3. But this wasn't what Summer of Sonic was all about.

Sonic himself made his appearance just before midday. He's bigger in real life you know, as he was always portrayed as being pretty short compared to your average human being. What's going on SEGA?

Anyway, up until the performance from the three music talents and the appearance of Nigel Kitching (man behind the Fleetway Sonic the Comic), the rest of the event was filled with competitions, from the art contest to the quiz, each one with a Nintendo DS as the prize.

But you don't want to know about that. You want to know about the performances from Lee Brotherton, T J Davis and Richard Jacques don't you? This was definitely the highlight of the event. First up was the music master himself Richard Jacques performing an incredible Sonic 1 medley, followed by some Sonic 3D Blast tracks and ending with an insane Outrun medley.

If that wasn't enough, T J Davis joined Richard on stage to perform, "Can you feel the Sunshine?", and, "Diamond in the Sky", from Sonic R.

Lee Brotherton (also known as Bentley Jones) came on as T J Davis left and performed the song he was notorious for (by his own admission), "Dreams of an Absolution" (Silver's theme from Sonic 2006 if you didn't know). He didn't perform the version from the game, or the awesome LB vs JS Remix however, he played the version from his album - confirmed to appear sometime within the next few months - so look out for it!

Lee also played a track that would become the theme of Summer of Sonic. Another version of "His World" called "Blue World Prelude". This is available to download from the Summer of Sonic website, and - like all the tracks performed on the day - is absolutely awesome.

Such an awesome performance deserved an awesome finale and we weren't disappointed. A track that took everyone by surprise. All three performed "Dreams Dreams", the ending theme to cult classic NiGHTS into Dreams. Yes we know it's not Sonic but we couldn't care less. Besides Sonic gave birth to Sonic Team so technically anything Sonic Team should be allowed.

There are videos on Youtube; MP3's freely available if you look hard enough. Basically you owe it to your ears to listen to these tracks and see the performance. If only to see Richard's awesome "To sound this good takes AGES" T-shirt.

By now time was against us. We still had the raffle, the Q&A with the three music talents and a special live showing of The Sonic Show. All to fit into an hour and unfortunately a lot had to be cut, including the Q&A. Attendees could still get things signed and I personally managed to get Several Wills (Sonic 2006 vocal track CD) signed by Lee Brotherton, and my copy of Sonic R signed by both TJ Davis and Richard Jacques.

All that was left was the raffle where a truck load of prizes were being given away. I'm not kidding - check out the Sonic City Blog (http://blogs.sega.com/sonic/2008/08/12/sos-review-pt-1-twas-the-night-before-sosmass/#more-161). Everything there was broken down into theme packs.

I won one of the cameo packs which contained a Phantasy Star Universe strategy guide, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: 'team Mario' T-shirt (which sadly I already own, but managed to give away), Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for the PC (which I own for the Gamecube), Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for the PS2 (which I own for the Wii), and the apparently rare NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Official Soundtrack (which again I already own). (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, a win is a win after all, and everything was free).

As 5pm approached (the agreed end time) the event was finished with the presentation of the cake (which was amazing! There are pictures on the website if you want to see for youself), and oddly a rendition of the DK Rap. There's a story there somewhere, something to do with a karaoke competition and a forfeit.

As I got on the train home I had time to reflect on the last seven hours and couldn't help but admire the organisers for all their hard work. What had started as a mini meet-up between Sonic fans suddenly exploded into such a big event, but they seemed to handle it effectively and ended up being very successful.
At the end of the day though it wasn't the games or the comics that made Summer of Sonic such a fantastic event, nor was it the challenges, prizes, or even the music performance. It was the atmosphere. Let's face it, the Sonic fan community is one of the most bitchiest communities out there, and with our hero's fall from grace being so apparent, spirits are at fairly low down. However, after Summer of Sonic I don't think there was a single attendee that didn't have a smile on their face.
If games do only one thing right, it's that they unite people, and I believe Summer of Sonic to be a prime example of that. I'm sure they're doing another next year - hopefully bigger and better. Who knows? Maybe there may even by a Winter of Tails in honour of the young fox's sweet sixteenth in November, though I'm sure the organisers have pulled off enough miracles for one year.

Competition Time!
So if you were paying attention then you will know I have a spare copy of the NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Soundtrack (the full thing, not the sampler). It wouldn't feel right to sell it, so to make things interesting here is the first TGN Blog Competition. Designed to get you all checking out my work, the sites I want to promote and Summer of Sonic itself.

The prize is a copy of the NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Soundtrack, still sealed.
For a chance of winning just answer the five questions below correctly. Send your screen name and answers to Master.hunter.joz@googlemail.com. All the correct answers will be entered in the prize draw. No runners-up prizes sadly (unless someone wants to donate some). Competition ends Friday 19th September 2008.

1. SOS: Richard Jacques, T J Davis and Lee Brotherton all performed at Summer of Sonic. Which Song did they all perform together?
   
2. TGN: One of the two communities I represented at Summer of Sonic is obviously TGN where I am a forum regular. What is my custom title on the forums?
   
3. RadioSEGA: I was also representing RadioSEGA. Who created RadioSEGA? (Real name please, first and surname)
   
4. MH: Bit of shameless self promotion here. What do my latest DeviantART submission (not the desktop screenshot the one before it) and my last updated fanfic on fanfiction.net have in common? (Wrong answers: Sonic, Based on games, Me)
   
5. NiGHTS: Finally as this is for an OST of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, what are the names of the two new 'visitors'?

More Terms and Conditions. There's no need to give me your address unless you win. The winner will be E-mailed to get further details. I will only use your details purely for this contest. Anyone can enter, whether you're a TGN member or not, including TGN admins (I am the only one who knows the answers and I will not be showing any bias). If you're under 18 it would be a good idea to discuss this with a parent or guardian before you submit personal information.

Continue reading Summer of Sonic

GTA Retrospective II - Grand Theft Auto 2

• Game: Grand Theft Auto 2
• Console: Dreamcast, PlayStation, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 1999

Released two years after the original GTA, GTA2 continued the top-down perspective introduced in the first game and carried on the game's basic formula, but set the game somewhere in the future, giving the game a sort of neon-punk feel. There was also only one city called 'Anywhere City', its location quite indeterminate. The game still had three levels, but all of them were 'districts' of the same city, rather different cities altogether. Firstly, there was the 'The Downtown Area', then 'The Residential District' and lastly 'The Industrial District'. It makes the game sound like The Crystal Maze, but it isn't, obviously.

Erm… ouch!

As with the original GTA, to get to the next level, you had to amass a certain score. The scoring system gives you points from practically everything you do; smash into a car and you'll get 100 points, blow a car up and you'll get 1000 (or something like that). The main way to get points, though, was to complete the missions that awaited you at phone-boxes. What GTA2 introduced, though, were rival gangs, and a karma-like system based around them. Each of these gangs were given its own meter in the top left-hand corner of the screen. These showed your standing with each of these gangs. If your meter was swaying to the left, they weren't too pleased with you. If it was to the right, they were practically in love with you. To gain respect from each of these gangs, you had to do missions for them. However, each gang was always trying to out-do each other, and doing missions for one gang may see you facing off against another gang you've been trying to get into bed with. This gave the game a bit more strategy; piss one gang off a little too much, and they'll try to kill you as soon as they see you. This means you have to pick your missions more carefully, and try to balance each gang's missions. You can do this or not, but the game would be a lot easier if you did.

Lighting effects FTW

As you can see from the screen above, the graphics were improved for the game, with added lighting effects and higher resolution textures. This gave the game quite a nice-but-gritty night time feel. The cars still looked like toys, but decided less-so thanks to the game's more futuristic theme. The radio stations were all present, but were added upon, with more songs and radio stations than before.

The game also had a short movie made for it, of which an edited version was used for the game's intro sequence. Also, if you want to play this or the original GTA, you can download them, completely free and completely legally, here.

Rather than being the next big step in the GTA series, GTA2 is more of an evolution. It carried on what GTA did very well and improved upon it. The graphics were improved, the depth of the game world, the missions, the cars, everything. However, GTA fans dared to dream of a 3D GTA, and they would get their wish 2 years later.

Coming up: GTA gets a three-dimensional make-over with GTAIII.

Continue reading GTA Retrospective II - Grand Theft Auto 2

Poll Results - 15/08/08

Despite being closed for a number of days now (I've only just noticed) the results are in! 22 people voted (moar plx), 45% said that they would indeed like to contribute (I'm guessing a few already have, bless 'em), 45% said maybe, which is lovely enough, I guess, and 2 people (9%) said they wouldn't, which is rather mean-spirited, but at least they answered.

I guess you're all thinking the same thing as me at this point; 45 + 45 + 9 does not add up to 100, it adds up to 99. That mean-spirited duo went and borked our poll! The traggots!

The new poll should be up just as soon as I can think of one. And, no, it won't be crisp-related, as that one's already been done.

Continue reading Poll Results - 15/08/08

Is Gaming a Man's World?

A Guest Article by Krystal

I don't pretend to know the answer to this question, but as a female myself, I would hope that I would have at least a brief insight into why girls don't tend to play games. Personally, I am an avid gamer and will play anything from a gritty FPS to an RPG with a cutesy story, (see Eternal Sonata). However, I think it is fair to say that the majority of women/girls will only play games for limited reasons. These reasons can include playing with their boyfriends, which I think can be a good starting point in making a female gamer. In this situation, girls can be introduced to games they never knew existed, and it can often be the case that they are pleasantly surprised with what they find and are eager to pursue gaming more. Personally I can trace my love for gaming back to when I was very young, watching my brother play on his Atari ST. I think it is common for younger siblings to look up to older brothers and sisters and I was no exception. Also, I always had a lot of male friends. This was how I got my hands on a PS1, as I was shown the delights of FFVII and Resident Evil, and wanted to check them out for myself. So a girl gamer was born, but as I say, it can happen in all kinds of different ways.

Now, with the Wii and DS, gaming is attracting a new audience with games for all the family being pushed more and more. You do see a lot of girls playing these consoles in particular because they are marketed so that nobody is intimidated by them and are not known for their overly 'manly' games. However, I find a lot of Nintendo's marketing rather insulting to female audiences, but I'm not sure how non-gaming females feel about them. One advert is the 'Girls for Games' trailer that Nintendo produced a while ago.

Wii advertisements - Just right or just wrong?

The trailer starts off quite well with the woman playing Phantom Hourglass, but then she just grins like a loon while playing through the various games, and when it gets to Nintendogs it just becomes embarrassing. However, I think the one part of the advert that should have got it right was the Animal Crossing one. Instead, it ends up playing on the stereotype of girls too much and the hairdresser is so patronising. "Aw he's cute in'ee!?". But then, I guess The Sims didn't sell millions because of hardcore male gamers did it? I do think that for many girls, the transition to gamer will never happen. The same way that women will never join the army in large numbers, and women's football will never be as popular as men's football.

But why is this? What makes girls so put off by games? Obviously I don't have the answer, but I think from a female perspective I can have a good go at analysing the possible reasons. I think firstly, girls are intimidated by games. Many people I know give up before they've even began and think the control schemes are too complicated or they don't really understand game physics and the like because they've never been exposed. I guess Nintendo are on the right track with the Smash Bros. Brawl advert which shows that the controls are actually quite simple. (I do however, think that advert is terrible). This goes back to what I was saying about boyfriends or in my case, big brothers. I think you do need someone to show you what to do sometimes so you can gain confidence. In the same vein, I think that girls can be put off because often they are thrown into multiplayer games with seasoned gamers who have probably been playing the game for months. Losing is a real confidence shatterer and I think some girls will lose the will to keep trying. Another thing is that yes, many games are quite 'manly' and you don't often see a female lead, unless she has huge breasts, (see Lara Croft). However, watching Giant Bomb's recent video review of Soul Calibur IV, even Jeff Gerstmann, who is careful to clarify that he does like breasts, thinks that characters like Ivy, cross the line. Things are changing though, and games like Mass Effect do a brilliant job of creating a female lead who is really likeable and believable in her role. I don't have a problem with games being aimed at men, because lets face it, they make up a significant majority of the market. Some games can try a bit too hard to be manly though. Assassin's Creed comes to mind here, if Altair so much as lifts a finger, he does the manliest grunt in the history of manly grunts.

Lara Croft - female icon or your next fantasy?

I do think that gaming will always be a man's world, but for what exact reasons I don't know. The same reasons that women don't join the army and don't play football are obviously relevant here. As I've mentioned in the article, I think Nintendo are on the right track when it comes to attracting females as a new audience. However, personally I don't think they have it quite right and I think if a girl wants to play games she will, and if she doesn't, it will be difficult to persuade her otherwise. Games like Mario Kart Wii and various DS games are a step in the right direction in terms of breaking newcomers in gently to the world of gaming. However, making the jump to something like Half Life 2 or PGR4 requires more than just clever marketing. It requires patience and passion. If girls don't have the passion for gaming, then that's fair enough. Nobody says that girls have to be gamers, but I think for some men it would be nice if their wives/girlfriends understood their hobby.

Continue reading Is Gaming a Man's World?

The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival

I've been attending the EIEF for a number of years now. In fact, when I started attending it was still called the Edinburgh Games Festival. This year's event, which was held between the 10th and 12th of August, was notable for its radically different scale from previous years. Now much smaller, or at least with a lot of room dedicated to the Dare Protoplay exhibit instead of actual games, I got the sense that the event is perhaps lacking the pulling power it once had. Some things never change though and there was still a relatively strong Edge presence; though this is far from the first gaming related event I've attended this year where free issues of the magazine have been abundantly available.

Still in its home of the past few years, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, the event had a very different feel. The Dare Protoplay exhibition took up the entirety of the downstairs hall, which, while interesting for a quick look, couldn't hold my attention for long. Dare to be Digital entrants certainly produce impressive games given the timescale they are created in, but none of them really looked any fun to play, though. In the end I decided my time would be better spent upstairs in the main area.

This was perhaps not entirely true, given the paltry number of games on show. Nintendo probably had the largest quantity of games available, but all of these had already been released. It's all fine and well having Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit there, and I understand why they were, though it was interesting to note that Mario Kart had been shunted off to a lonely corner of the room. What Nintendo were really interested in showing off was Cooking Guide and Brain Training. Cooking Guide, in fact, had an elaborate set up, with a number of DSs running the game, showing off cooking recipes from professional chefs. The food was nice, but I suspect this had something more to do with the professional chefs and expensive variants of the ingredients, as opposed to the recipes themselves.

The next biggest presence was probably Codemasters. Sadly this extended to little more than a demo reel and no less than 12 demo pods running Race Driver: GRID. I was a bit surprised that this was the only playable game they had given the sheer number of 360s that were there. In all honesty I don't know why they felt the need to push GRID which has now been out for a relatively long time anyway.

This brings us to Sony's presence, which was the best despite being the smallest. Sony had 4 PS3s running LittleBigPlanet, which was obviously what caught the attention of just about everybody at the event. We waited a long, long time to play the game behind a particularly annoying and melodramatic boy and to top it all off the queue was then jumped by another little kid. Naturally, we couldn't complain despite our annoyance. The game itself was really fun to play, even though our session was relatively brief. The first thing you notice is that the game looks really nice. It's probably the prettiest looking game I've seen this generation so far. In motion everything just looks really well defined and the use of colour throughout is excellent. In terms of controls, they're relatively stripped back and simple, though the control for changing which of the 3 planes you're on was a little fiddly at first. From a gameplay point of view, it all seemed really fun. The platforming was executed well, though initially a little disorienting due to the strangely large amount of inertia your character's movement has. Additionally, we were briefly shown the level creation tool, which looks robust but was slightly bewildering. I'm sure with a little time it becomes a bit easier to navigate through all the menus to create really interesting objects and levels. LittleBigPlanet is a game which I will wholeheartedly recommend based on my short experience of the game.

Finally we got some excellent goodie-bags from the Gamestation shop that had been set up in the conference centre. These were filled with t-shirts, Pac-man sweets, Saints Row 2 playing cards and other random gaming affiliated goods. Despite this bonus, the conference this year was a shadow of former years. I have to wonder if it can continue much longer in its current form, if the level of publisher involvement is going to remain the same.

Pac-man sweet instructions. Because kids and grownups love it so, apparently

Continue reading The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival

Red Faction: Guerrilla Beta - Hands On

Today I was lucky enough to have a good sit down with the multiplayer Beta code of Red Faction: Guerrilla. Having not played any Red Faction games for any longer than 5 minutes previous, I can say that I was a little shocked at what I got. Unlike the first-person perspective of preceding titles in the saga, this new iteration takes its form in the third person. A growing trend in games as of late, this shift in camera also pulls the game play to a more vertical plane than in most FPSs, having a feel that is not too far from Lost Planet.

"Excuse me sir, but your rucksack appears to be on fire."

As this was a multiplayer beta, I got together some friends and started my first ranked match on the map Crash Site. A simple deathmatch game ensued where I had no earthly idea what was going on. This was mainly due to my lack of foresight to scan over the controls but I fear that even then I may have found myself in the same spot. Predictably, the right trigger is ‘fire’, with the ‘A’ button performing a weak little jump – so weak in fact, that I doubt your on-screen avatar could actually traverse a curb on the side of a road without much difficulty. After these two commands though, things get a little hazy. Holding the right bumper brings up your weapons and selecting them is a case of pressing the relevant face button. With your new weapon drawn, you can also melee with the left trigger. These unorthodox controls – as do most - soon become a little less clumsy from extended play, though.

Speaking of extended play, my initial impression of the game at the moment was not very good; playing team deathmatch on three different drab-looking, dusty arenas with clutter everywhere and controls that hate you. After the third match in however, the matchmaking spewed out the Radial map and gave all players a jetpack and a buzz saw-firing gun … thing to play with in addition to the default assault rifle. This suddenly woke up ‘The Fun’ in a sudden upwards jerky movement. Players were bounding up and over huge rocks spitting discs of death at each other. I however, found the remote mines and quickly began raining fiery death onto unsuspecting players below; leaping to the next stone pillar at the first sound of ‘whoosh’ as another buzz disc narrowly shaves my character’s sideburns.

The next game didn’t disappoint either, taking us for the first time out of the realms of team deathmatch and into the kingdom of Damage Control. The premise here is similar to territories game types on other shooters but with a twist that takes advantage of the games big selling point that I have purposely kept hushed about until now. For those not in ‘The Know’ – a metaphorical island of understanding surrounded by ‘The Sea of Ignorance’ – Red Faction games have been famous for incorporating a Geo-mod system into their environments (destructible scenery to me and you). Taking this mechanic, players must rebuild broken pieces of specific scenery using the Reconstructor – a weapon seemingly built by Ronseal, which does exactly what it says on the tin. This hut/shed/satellite dish that you just rebuilt is now under your control and you get points for each one you control over time. The enemy however, will try to destroy your captures and rebuild it themselves. While not a new idea, this take on the game type is imaginative and is actually quite fun to play, as some players station themselves inside the captured buildings only to find that an enemy has secretly placed explosives on each of its supporting pillars. There are few things quite as humorous in games as to see a player flattened by the roof of the building they were protecting. I am a man of the environment and being able to destroy it … well, it quite frankly gives me jollies.

In all game types, you have a sledgehammer as a secondary weapon, primarily used to aid in your destruction of scenery and slightly reminiscent of the Megaton Hammer from Zelda. When they said “fully destructible scenery” though, I imagined being able to tunnel into the ground and blow chunks out of cliff walls – something I have been informed is in the single player. What they seem to have meant was that all the buildings are fully destructible and the main geometry of the maps remains intact. This is not to say that destroying buildings isn’t impressive though. Every piece that you knock out of place falls to the ground as walls dismantle themselves into lego-esque pieces - unlike Battlefield: Bad Company where rubble seems to disappear into the ether. The game does all this without so much as a hint of slowdown in a hectic fire fight as debris litters the battle grounds. Nonetheless, all this on-screen action comes at a graphical price. All the maps I played seemed to look a browner shade of turd and didn’t even attempt to boogie in front of my eyes. In addition to this, the character models are very ‘last generation’, much like shoulder pads and neon wristbands. While I imagine the developer Volition, Inc. will undoubtedly improve upon the graphics, I have this niggling imp of doubt that we shouldn’t exactly hold out for anything to rival Gears of War 2 in that department.

The multiplayer game, when left to walk alone without its best mate Geo-mod, is average at best, quivering at the knees and looking around to find some support. It’s the addition and satisfaction of the demolition aspects that help the game play into a little jog - and even sometimes a slow run - to Enjoymentville.

Continue reading Red Faction: Guerrilla Beta - Hands On

GTA Retrospective I - Grand Theft Auto

• Game: Grand Theft Auto
• Console: PlayStation, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
  
• Publisher: BMG Interactive
• Released: 1997
  

The original Grand Theft Auto is the game that started it all. The game that pretty much invented the 'sandbox' style that influenced dozens of clones and quite possibly became the most important game ever made. Developed by DMA Design (which would become Rockstar North), Grand Theft Auto (GTA) - originally named 'Race N Chase' - was released on the PC and PlayStation in 1997. At the time, it was hard to imagine just what this low in tech but high in prospect game would do to the industry and what it would become in 11 years' time.

The game was viewed from a 2D top-down perspective, with your main character appearing as a tiny sprite and cars looking more like toy cars than the authentic looking, thousand plus polygon cars of GTA IV. The game also featured quite a strange control method; 'up' was forward, depending upon whichever way your character or vehicle was facing and consequently to that, left was always left and right was always right. The top-down view allowed the developers to create a massive game world for you to commit any type of crime you could imagine (or, at least any type of crime you could actually do in the game). Pedestrians were bumper fodder as well as cannon fodder. Every vehicle in the game was yours to drive whether it had someone else driving it or not, and each vehicle had its own radio, which would allow you listen to different songs from seven different radio stations. All these features introduced in this first GTA game were incredibly pioneering and became synonymous with the series, improving upon these advances with each game, making each new chapter in the saga of GTA seem more like real-life than the last (if in real-life, you could actually get away with it all).

The guys walking in a line are Buddhists. If you run them all over in quick succession, you get a load of bonus points.

The first GTA also introduced three cities that would all get their very own games; Liberty City from GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories. Vice City, which was based on Miami, would get GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories. San Andreas, which was based on San Francisco, would get GTA San Andreas. What is notable is that San Andreas in GTA San Andreas is a state, as it housed three cities: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), but in this game it was merely a city. In fact, none of the cities' original layouts would survive the transition to 3D. In the original GTA each of these cities were the game's levels, and would serve the player as such. To get from one city (or level) to the next, you had to reach a certain score. To get this score you would have to employ tactics in true GTA style: cause havoc, steal and sell cars, or just do missions. This gave the game a much more arcade type feel than its successors. The game had no story to speak of and you could pick one of eight different characters to play as: Travis, Kat, Mikki, Divine, Bubba, Troy, Kivlov and Ulrika. It didn't detract anything from the game though, as doing anything you wanted, anywhere and anytime, as you see fit, gave the game a lot more freedom than any game before it.

GTA also got an expansion pack in the form of GTA London. Set in the 60s, this was the first game in the series to utilise a licensed soundtrack to add to that authenticity the game deserved.

This was what your character looked like, a million miles away from Niko Bellic and the like.

Even though the game had a lot of violent content, it was all very tongue-in-cheek. You could punch passers-by in the face or merely taunt them by burping or farting. 'Gritty realism' is a something this game would reject in favour of unadulterated, and rather immature, fun. It really goes to show the farcical nature of some of the controversy over this game.

The game also introduced the 'wanted level' system of gameplay. Even though you could do anything you wanted to, it came at a price. Mount up a succession of crimes, be it kicking the crap out of pedestrians, car-jacking, hit and runs etc., and you would release a pack of baying police officers to either haul your ass in to the nearest police station, or 'take you out'.

Despite its humble beginnings, the GTA franchise would practically know no bounds in the years to come, going from strength to strength, city by city. Literally. GTA tore the gaming community a new one with its freeform gameplay and controversial content. The gaming world would never be the same again, and this was just the beginning.

Coming up - we take a look at the next game in the series: GTA II.

Continue reading GTA Retrospective I - Grand Theft Auto

News Round-Up

Braid is available on Xbox Live Arcade now and is awesome. At M$1200, you might think it's a little expensive, but try the demo and make up your mind, you may be very pleasantly surprised.

Braid Thread on TGN

Lionhead Studios have announced a release date for Fable 2. It hits shelves on the 24th of October and comes in two flavours: original and Limited Collector's Edition. The LCE looks a little like this:

Click 'em!

Source

Battlefield: Bad Company's got a new game mode in the form of 'Conquest'. Expect a quick old review of that when one of us gets the chance to play it. It's free to download, even if you haven't got the game, but that'd be pretty useless.

Mass Effect might get more DLC, according to Joystiq and MTV Multiplayer. It was remarked upon but not really confirmed.

Driver, the PSone crime-busting car-chase sim is getting a release on PSN on August the 14th.

Want Chrono Trigger on the DS this Christmas? Tough, unless you get it on import, of course.

This is FighterO'Foo for TGN. Don't expect this everyday and, please, don't have nightmares.
Continue reading News Round-Up