The Time has come

We're breaking the weekend rule to bring you a special announcement. We are ready to announce that The Next Level UK has moved to a new home. Reasons for the move will be detailed at the new site. We have been working for less than a week to get this up and running and although everything on the site is functional, no doubt there will be some errors. So we are launching the new site in a open beta. We are going to be adding to the website throughout the weekend as some parts still need work, but we hope to be fully functional by Monday.

In the mean time, head over to the link below and sign up now! Those who sign up will be registering for more exciting things in the future. This blog is now discontinued basically, very few things will be posted here, if any.

THE NEXT LEVEL UK

Feature: My life and games...Part 5

In the final part of this feature, I look at PC's and handheld's

To read previous parts:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
  

My PC history is far more interesting than my handheld one, I know that much. The first  thing I owned which could be called a PC was an Amiga 500. For those that don't know, this was basically a keyboard with the computer built on the back, with a floppy drive in which games and the OS would be loaded. I was young at the time of being given this by someone we knew, so to me, it just was like they had took a Megadrive and plastered a few things on it, and instead of cartridges, used these strange floppy disks things.

I had a absolute ton of these discs, but many were simply one game spread out over various different discs. Examples of that were Monkey Island 1 and 2, absolute classic games, but had around 11-13 disks. Some games however were so small that various ones were contained on one disk. I remember I had a comedy winter sports game that you picked what you wanted to do by skiing to the event. Quite good for the time.

Actually starting the thing up was a hassle, as you actually had to turn on the power  brick (so don't moan about the 360's) and then I think you had to press something along the lines of Ctrl+Alt+Del (or the equivalent) as you put the game in and then it would load. Mine could use Megadrive controllers, so controlling the games was simple, but it used a stodgy 2 button mouse which wasn't that responsive.

For the time it was produced (long before I came to own one) it was an impressive piece of kit. It retailed at $595.95 if you were prepared to hook it up to your TV without the monitor, but looking back, its interesting to see how far we have come spec wise:

Technical specifications (taken from Wikipedia)

• OCS chipset. Later revisions of the chipset made PAL/NTSC mode switchable in software.
  • Graphics could be of arbitrary dimensions, resolution and colour depth, even on the same screen.
  • Without using overscan, the graphics could be 320 or 640 pixels wide by 200/256 or 400/512 pixels tall.
  • Planar graphics were used, with up to 5 bitplanes (4 in hires), allowing 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 colour screens, from a palette of 4096 colours. Two special graphics modes where also included: Extra HalfBrite, which used a 6th bitplane as a mask that halved the brightness of any colour seen, and Hold And Modify (HAM), which allowed all 4096 colours on screen at once.
  • Sound was 4 hardware-mixed channels of 8-bit sound at up to 28 kHz. The hardware channels had independent volumes (65 levels) and sampling rates, and mixed down to two fully left and fully right stereo outputs. A software controllable low-pass audio filter was also included.
• 512 KB of Chip RAM.
• AmigaOS 1.2 or 1.3
• One double-density floppy disk drive was included, which was completely programmable and thus could read 720 KB IBM PC disks, 880 KB standard Amiga disks, and up to 984 KB with custom formatting (such as Klaus Deppich’s diskspare.device).
• Built in keyboard.
• A two-button mouse was included.

 

For those that don't understand it, it was not particularly comparable to anything that was out at the time I was playing. But I owe it to the Amiga for introducing me to Point and Click games, truly classic arcade games, and some truly poor ones as well. I also used 'Workbench' as limited as it was, simply to play around with, realising it could be used as a computer we only saw at school.

Eventually though after lasting nearly 12 years, some of the connections started to fail, and it ended up in black and white and with no sound (a theme of my breaking consoles). Still own it, still usable in fact, may have to try it out one day on my HDTV.....

The next PC which we had was Time PC in the year 2000. Satisfied the Millennium bug was not going to cause the end of the world, this computer was not a bad spec for its day, probably above average compared to my friends. It had for some strange reason a server grade AMD processor in it (Time were a bit strange back then in their computer building, hence it blowing up on me around three years later), 128mb RAM, graphics card etc etc. It handled all the games I wanted to play on it easily.

I was mostly into strategy and simulation games at that time, so played stuff like 'The Sims' and its expansions (one of the primary reasons for many computers breaking as the requirement specs got higher), Age of Empires, Empire Earth, (looks in draw) Star Wars: Force Commander (dear me that wasn't very good), Sim City 2000 and 3000.

 

Eventually, after playing Unreal Tournament which came bundled with the PC (along with quite a lot of other cow crap games, apart from Abe's Odyssey, and Flight Unlimited 2), I started to get into First Person Shooters. I mainly played the Star Wars Jedi Knight series as it was a series I enjoyed and were pretty good games to boot.

Anyway, after attempting to play Knights of the Old Republic on the PC and realising how dreadfully poor the PC had become when it refused to install because it was too crap, the PC took a downward turn. Everything from the HDD to the CPU broke, blew up, fried itself, it was time to get a new one.

Eventually we did. Not a gaming rig by any stretch of the imagination, but by this time I was more focused on consoles anyway. Standard specs, ran most things ok, and did allow me to go back and play some older titles on full settings, and made me realise that these games were better than I thought.

I'm still into games such as the Total War series, Sim City 4 (SC: Societies is pants) and Civ IV. My FPS love has moved over to consoles mostly, with this machine not being powerful enough to run the latest stuff, its easier stick with consoles.

There is a lot more about PC's I could tell you, but I'm probably already being accused of going on so I'll stop! But one thing I have learned is that unless you are dedicated to being a PC gamer, and not owning a console, and you build a gaming rig, that's all you have, as the speed tech moves and the way costs change, there is no way you can afford £200-£300 for the latest graphics card.

Now my handheld history is short, mainly because it really didn't interest me. I have  had all those random little pocket games, 10000011 games in 1 and all those brick puzzles. I've had a Game Boy colour, which is still in perfect working order, and the only games I had for that were Pokemon Yellow and Crystal, and the LoZ: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Those games were big enough to keep me happy, and still do today.

Why have I never got into Handheld gaming? I think its perhaps the quick turnaround costs of Hardware. I always contemplate getting one sure, from the GBA SP to a DS to a PSP, but never seem to get one. Mind you, I am thinking about a PSP at the moment, but that will involve me spending money. Reason being is that I need a handheld that allows me to do more than simply play games. I'm a fan of gadgets which combine things together, so if the rumours of a PSP phone are true, I may have to get saving. Although don't get me wrong, I love some of the DS games and think that the Final Fantasy remakes on it are very well done, but it just doesn't do enough for me.

That's it, well done, you've made it to the end. I hope these features have given you a idea about how my life has being connected with games, and I didn't have a point to prove when I've wrote these, its always nice to have a bit of a nostalgia trip. 

Feature: My Life and Games...Part 4

Its the penultimate part of this feature, and in this one, I look at the new generation of consoles.

Read Previous parts here:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

It was time I thought, that I actually got a console at launch, rather than waiting till it was a few years older. I wanted to be an 'early adopter'. Obviously this generation I had three choices, Xbox 360, Wii and the PS3. I contemplated the 360 for quite some time and for some quite valid reasons. The online system was much better than Sony's proposed PSN, more quality games due to its early release and was not as expensive as the PS3. Quite a lot of people I knew had it, so there would be plenty of multi-player options.

But, even though the 360 seemed the sensible options, I've never been sensible, and I wanted a launch console, so it was either the behemoth, wallet munching PS3 or the oddly named, waggle fun machine the Wii. At the time, no one knew how popular the Wii was going to be, no one could predict how many people would buy it, how many old folks homes would be organising Wii bowling leagues etc.

My main reason for choosing to get a PS3 was because I could play the only game I wanted to for Wii LoZ: The Twilight Princess, on Gamecube as well, with some critics preferring the GC version, so I didn't really want to purchase the console on the grounds of one game. The PS3 meanwhile, had a lot more features built into it which I would use, and had backwards compatibility so I could play all the PS2 games which I owned (well most, it was slightly hobbled due to the software emulation). Another reason, a geeky one I agree, was that I wanted to use it as a personal computer as well, so I needed to upgrade the harddrive and install Linux on it (something I have done).

I got Resistance: Fall Of Man and Motorstorm at launch, though I originally wanted Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but many Ubisoft games were mysteriously delayed for a month. I was also playing on a SD TV, which stunted the impact of the upgraded graphics, although I was still impressed withe overall scale of things in both games. I got nailed by a lot of 360 owners at school, and whereas I could see where they were coming from, I simply didn't care. Maybe they had forgot that the quality of 360 launch titles was massively below standard.

Don't get me wrong, me and countless others have all gone 'Oh no, not again' at some of the things Sony has done said, especially with the Sixaxis and their backtrack over having rumble in controllers. Promised games such as Lair turned out to be awful, with poor controls and a patch did nothing to aid its life and the way Sony tried to 'help' reviewers review the game didn't got down too well.

I've always tried to stay away from console related discussions regarding which one is best, as looking back, they have all at the moments at different times. I believe (with the exception of the Wii) that it matters even less this generation. Most companies release games on more than one platform anyway, simply due to it being expensive no matter what console you develop for. That said, I'm really looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII

Would I like to play on all three consoles, certainly I would, but money ain't a unlimited resource, and neither is time. I was speaking to some adult Wii owners, who were actually into games, and they were telling me about it and said that its fun, but wouldn't recommend getting one till it was sub £100 at least. And even then, I doubt I would have a extensive game collection on it. I would find myself buying games I already owned from the virtual console. Wii Ware looks promising, but not too convincing for a perspective buyer.

What for the future then. I expect that they will simply keep building and building more things on top of the machines, from firmware to peripherals. The Wii will probably be the first to get an upgrade, new version or a new console, but somehow I don't see Nintendo backtracking from the casual market. Maybe the PS3 will be made smaller, and possibly another model of the 360 will be introduced. But with price drop galore predicted at E3, its going to get very interesting.

Tomorrow, in the final instalment, I look at my PC gaming and the handhelds...

Quantum of Solace-First look

We're suckers for James Bond games, and with the sheer bulk of them in the last generation, they have kind of gone from OK, to awful to acceptable and back to bad again. Nothing has created quite the effect that the fabled Goldeneye on the N64 did.

Well, after changing hands a fair few times, the next game based on the film, Quantum of Solace looks the business. Using the COD4 engine, everything looks superb at the moment, with destructible environments and generally great effects that were first seen in COD4. Anyway, enough talking, take a look at this video from Gametrailers and see what you think, I'm actually looking forward to this Bond game.

Feature: My life and games...Part 3

I look at the last generation

Read previous parts here:

• Part 1
• Part 2

I spent a long time in the N64 era, played many of the classics many times. But around the Christmas of 2002, it was time to look at getting a new console. It was at this point, all my friends appeared to have PS2s. What what this magical black console. Being a stalwart Nintendo fan at the time, I found that if I was going to get any console, it would be a Gamecube. I was slightly driven by fanboyism I admit, this was before I developed my anti-fanboy rules in my mind. A friend of mine had a Xbox, but that was not for me, so it was between two consoles.

There was another console, the Sega Dreamcast, but this was truly the end of Sega, poor third party support, and once the PS2 got rolling, it was clear that the Dreamcast was released too early, with not enough power. It was home to some good games, and had some generally good ideas behind it such as online play, but unfortunatly, it just didn't work out for them.

My views changed however after going round a few friends after Xmas. I had mostly moved over to playing PC games at this point, and had moved away from consoles slightly (PC's are appearing later in the week). But three games seemed to change my mind from Gamecube to PS2. I saw within a short period James Bond 007: Nightfire, GTA: Vice City (a friends dad was playing on it) and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

I was amazed at the scope and size of Vice City and couldn't believe the way that the FMV's blended into game in TTT and the likenesses of characters in Nightfire. It was kind of a random thing that made me think 'OMG the PS2 is amazing', but it did. So for my birthday in March, we got one. Now I did something very dangerous, left the PS2 game buying strategy in the charge of my parents. Basically meaning that if the box art looked pretty good, it was chosen.

Thus the games I had were:

• X-men: Next Dimension (comic book based beat-em-up)
• 007: Nightfire (alternative film-like game)
• LOTR: The Two Towers (based on the film)
• LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (based on the books, truly awful)
• Gungrave (anime shooter)
• And for my dad- GTA: VC, though of course a snuck a play...

So, some good, some bad, and some truly awful. I managed to amass quite a collection of PS2 games over the years, and having never traded any in, I still have all the really poor games I have bought over the years. Using the Dualshock 2, although I had used it before, was much more comfortable for long playing session that the N64 pad and *shock horror* I could access all the buttons without changing my hand position!

But, although I enjoyed some Sony based franchises, I longed to play The Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine and various other games which had made their home on the 'cube. I remembering entering a competition to win a ton of Gamecube stuff and hoping and hoping that I would win (silly I know). Therefore, I bought one of eBay for quite a small amount of money. It came with a few games, and as I did with the N64, I developed a small but fairly quality collection of games. For the small amount I did have, I had quite a long playtime of them all, which is all you can ask really.

So, looking back, was this the best part of my gaming so far. Possibly. I certainly improved my knowledge of everything massively, and often practiced writing reviews on games that I had played. I got better at a greater variety of games, expanded into different genres. If anything it was much more varied than the N64 days and maybe because of the sheer amount of second hand games that were available for the PS2. Whatever happened, I know it shaped what games I play now.

Coming tomorrow: PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii...

Soul Calibur IV, Impressions...

Soul Calibur IV is the latest in the fighting offerings by Namco, and takes the series onto the PS3 and 360. Much has been made of the games, female characters specifically *cough* 'enhancements' *cough* (sorry one of those jokes had to be put in somewhere), possibly the most disputed being the addition of Star Wars characters in the game, as some kind of major marketing ploy perhaps. Yoda is appearing in the 360 version with Darth Vadar in the PS3 one, with Starkiller, the apprentice out of Lucasarts 'Star Wars: Force Unleashed' being in both. (see the Darth Vadar stage in the video below, if you can ignore the shouting people).

Being a fan of the series, I looked forward to this game, so lets take a look at what we know is on offer in this next game. From screen shots released yesterday, we can see that the majority of the modes from previous games are in the game, such as character creation, arcade mode, single player mode, VS mode, museum and a comic. Going on past SC games, it's likely that the single player may evolve into a strange text driven, choice adventure, or maybe even proper cutscenes this time!

The roster has been updated slightly, with the SW characters I mentioned before and a  few new faces, with previous characters being given the HD makeover and various other little bits and pieces. According to a variety of sources however, it appears that even in the completed builds Namco are showing journalists etc, character's appear unbalanced (no in power not the other way), quite badly. Lets hope Namco get it sorted out.

Another part of the SC franchise which has always shone is graphics, and from screen shots we've seen, this year is no exception. Audio has been improved, with a grander soundtrack and even better cheesy voices. Graphical effects look sharp and vivid, with animation, although still a tad rough in some videos I have seen, looking more realistic to previous games. Stages look distinct with varying uses of light and textures and the character models themselves looking very detailed. But, what is the price the users have the pay for all these graphics....

...Quite a bit according to Kotaku (amongst many) as rumours of a install as large as 6.5GB have been quoted, with a 2GB save file for PS3. 360 owners don't get away with it either, as rumours are also going around that you need a HDD to play it, and if your with a 20gb one, its going to vanish pretty quickly.

So, am I looking forward to SCIV...Hmm, tricky one that. On one side, I enjoyed past games and find the weapons mechanics refreshing, but don't really think adding tonnes of extra characters (Kratos of God of War fame is also rumoured for the PS3) doesn't really wash with me, I thought adding Link etc to SCII was daft. I'll probably get it, being a bit of a SW fan and liking SC, but its about time this series focused solely on the fighting and less on top heavy characters.....

Feature: My Life and Games...Part 2

I look at the Saturn, the PS1 and the N64

Read previous parts:

• Part 1

In the last part, I focused on my time warped early years, but now we move on a era to the beginning of the end of Sega and the arrival of Sony as a force to be reckoned with.

Personally, I only knew 2 families that owned a Sega Saturn. As one of the first consoles that actually had CD-ROM capabilities built into it, and being made by Sega, it originally looked quite promising. The problems with the Saturn during development, as it was originally meant to be a cartridge based, 2D system, but was hastily changed, hence the poor quality of some of the games.

From what I remember, the Saturn pad was a juiced up Megadrive one, with more buttons and shoulder buttons. I remember being massively impressed with the Saturn years ago, after seeing Tomb Raider 1 for the first time, a crazy pseudo 3D isometric game called Bug!, and a random, albeit strangely fun game called 'Clockwork Knight', although it looks much easier now than I remember it.

The main issues I found with the Saturn, or remember was that there was not that many brilliant games for it, or at least, no ones which my friends owned. I'm no expert on the Saturn (contemplating picking one up soon though...) but I do remember enjoying it for the time it had.

Then it all changed. It was at this point I made probably my first personal choice towards what console I would own. My cousin's family sold the Saturn, for a sweet pea or something, and bought a PS1. From somebody who thought a Saturn looked great, the PS1 blew me away. My auntie was really into Tomb Raider at the time, and watching TR 2 and 3 was incredible, it all seemed so vibrant. We played loads of different games for this, from Final Fantasy VII (I remember we named all our characters after Pokemon characters, ah good old times) to MGS 1. But, when I had a opportunity to have a new console, I switched to Nintendo.

Whereas the PS1 used CD-ROMS and had modern sounding soundtracks and FMV's, the N64 uses backward cartridges, had a blocky exterior and a weird control. But I still had one, and didn't regret it. My uncle attempted to tell me 'You could have loads of games for the Playstation, etc etc', but my argument was that the graphics on N64 had much more colour, vibrancy and overall looked better, different, but in my opinion (at the time, I've seen some dirty looking 64 games and some colourful PS games) the graphics were better.

The first games I had for it was Banjo-Kazooie, a classic I replay to this day, and Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire (I was a bit of a Star Wars geek, so naturally I had this).

I played Banjo much more, and became a bit of a expert amongst friends on the game, often being asked to help them out through certain parts. Although my N64 collection was small, it was certainly well played, and most importantly because I wanted to play it. Although I had many more games for Megadrive, and then later for PS2, I spent so many hours on the Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64 and various others. My cousin probably only complete about a quarter of his PS collection, not due to lack of skill, but to simply having some good, and some very poor games. I completed all but one, and that was due to lack of skill!

Coming tomorrow: The disappearance of Sega, and the arrival of the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube...

Gran Turismo 4 24hr Endurance Race-Feature

Here it is, proof of the fact that we did spend that long on that game, Gran Turismo 4.

We had decided a couple of months ago that we wanted to create a series of video game challenges and the idea of the 24hr endurance race was the first that sprung to mind. Finding a time to do it in was a challenge in of itself, but eventually we did and so what followed was 24 hours of virtual racing.

Click the link below for the HD version.

The Next Level GT4 Endurance Race Challange from The Next Level UK on Vimeo.

Feature: My life and games...Part 1

I look the earliest generation I can remember.

Gaming started quite early for me. Although my parents were never massivly keen gamers apart from arcades in pubs they always tell me, but they always seemed to own consoles. Although i was too young to remember, we have owned a NES, which suffered from a broken cartridge thing, then a SNES, but they sold that before I was really old enough to play it. God damn that was annoying, learning that I would have to wait till about 1999 before my first proper encounter on my own with a LoZ game. Anyway, my first experience with video games would be at my cousins,who owned the older style Sega Megadrive, the larger less sleek looking one (still working apparently). My uncle was the one who played the games, we often watched as he failed miserably at Shinobi and attempted to complete Sonic 1.

So, my first real time I can remember holding a pad was quite an interesting one as we didn't actually play the game. I remember me and my cousin sitting and pretending we were playing Sonic, where in fact it was just the rolling demo at the start, don't know why we never pressed start, well, it seemed we were winning all the time! Anyway, eventually we worked out what the pads were for and so began games.

After pestering my parents for some time, we ended up getting one of our first megadrives, the 2nd version, so was smaller and sleeker but seemed to have a fair few more problems regarding connections but thats another story (one that will probably appear later). We had most of the games which were actually suitable for my age back then, such as Sonic, Micro Machines and various others. But also I had more extreme games (for my age) such as Jurassic Park and Ecco the Dolphin (quite a dark game for those who have played it to the end). Though, being quite young and being one of the more interesting 2 player co-op experiences was Mickey Mouse- World of Illusion.

I feel I need to donate quite a bit of time to this game. It was the first to introduce to games where you had to work with the other person to finish the game. Mickey and Donald traveled through the world, not really any particular aim other than to get home. Each playthrough, depending on whether you played as Mickey or Donald or with co-op took you through alternative levels or simply different ones. This may sound primitive now, but at the time for me, it was very immersive.

I was initially heartbroken when my Megadrive lost all sound, but we suddenly ended up with a new one, that came with even more games. These included a few games which i really wasn't ready to play at the time such as 'Alien'. Not a great game, but scared me back then. I also realised not all games were good, after playing Batman: Returns, with the most hobbled control scheme ever, one of which I spent many a afternoon trying to work out.

It was also strange not having any save games back then (minus for a few RPG's, the Megadrive had very few games which saved, annoyingly), you played the beginning of games over and over again. Another thing was that annoying was that the control pads were very strange, with only 3 buttons and start (with a d-pad obviously), limiting control methods.

Back then, I was not really into reading magazines and the internet was a no go, so I really only knew about games from going round family and friends, this often meant that everyone ended up with very similar games.

At this moment in time, the Megadrive is packed away, with a problem with the audio connection...again....(blame RF connections), but it will be down at some point. But, if you own the games, it is legal to download and emulate them, but if you don't own them, and have the downloaded files for more than 24 hours, you're being naughty!
Tomorrow, Saturn, PS1 and N64....

Admin's Message

Hello there. Basically, over the weekend, the blog's html code got corrupted along with the widget code, meaning that most of it needed to be started from scratch. We set up a test WordPress blog for 2 reasons 1. So it could act as a beta test for our new website which is currently in development and 2. So it could act as an emergency blog if the main one (at the moment this one) went down for some unknown reason. Posting will continue as normal for the moment, and we will announce the website once we are into a beta test with it. Hopefully soon.
Thanks

The Next Level UK team

The Next Level Update - 07/07/08

After a crazy weekend, here's the TNL update.

Noal Gallagher blames game for knife crime

Speaking to BBC newsbeat, oasis frontman Noal has claimed that rising knife crime  amongst young people can be blamed on yes, you guessed it, videogames. Nevermind the fact that many other forms of media promote violence, Gallagher says that violent video games desensitises young people to violence. He does not mention any particular game but says it is 'very, very scary'. I can't blame him for making his anti knife crime views known, what with a spate of horrible stabbing's recently, but I believe there are other things to link it too rather than video games, society in general would be one. This mainly comes from when he was in Liverpool recently and saw news stories about it every night. he goes on to say

"People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it, if kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk and they become so desensitised to crime because they're playing these video games...".

PSP holds strong in Japan

Following a bit of a mad week for Sony, good news for the PSP over in the land of the  rising sun. Facing increased competition from the Nintendo consoles, the PSP has managed to hold on to the top spot, down just 500 units on the previous weeks. This may show an increase in popularity for the PSP as a platform, with quality releases such as Final Fantasy VII crisis core and Japan favourite monster hunter boosting sales. Following the massive boost of sales of the PS3 following the release of MGS4, sales of the platform have decreased again, but Sony will still probably be quite happy, as even they have admitted that the PSP is 'doing better than we hoped'

PSP - 58,861
Nintendo DS - 48,884
Wii - 48,480
PlayStation 3 - 17,973
PlayStation 2 - 7,673
Xbox 360 - 5,104

Sales data compiled by Media Create.

J Allard CXO

Poor J Allard, after been shifted from one project to another, one being the Zune (poor guy) he has now been given the fantastically made up role of...Chief Experience Officer (CXO). What that means is that

"As Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), J Allard is  responsible for the technical architecture and user experiences related to products and services of the Entertainment and Devices (E&D) division. Allard works closely with technical leaders across the company to align E&D product teams with Microsoft's overall services strategy and product architecture, and drives the technical and design agenda to deliver Connected Entertainment experiences for consumers. With a unified approach and his personal passion for the possibilities of digital entertainment, Allard manages the E&D design group and also oversees an incubation team that scouts new opportunities for the division."

That was a lot, don't know whether that means he's going to be back into the Xbox biz, where he did a eccentrically good job, and developed a rather strange cult following. We need more bald dudes on stage now Phil has left Sony.

No More Brain Training!

Nintendo have announced they have no plans to make more Brain Training games , down to the fact the first two still make loads of money. Speaking to trade magazine MCV, Nintendo marketing director Dawn Paine said

"The idea behind More Brain Training is that people can move across to it once they have played the first one, and vice versa, and are looking for new challenges and training exercises,"

Basically, that because the Brain Training games are still doing so well in the charts, it seems silly to do any R&D into making any more. Mind you, with Dr. Kawishima (sp!) himself being ripped off by it all (apparently) I'm sure he's not keen for any more to appear.

GTA crime spree

Quite a widely reported story, as the Internet loves flaming on idiots, and who can  blame them when they are this idiotic. Siding with Jack Thompson and co, six clever teenagers have gone on a late night crime spree in Nassau county, New York. there first attempt at game emulation had them mugging someone, robbed a motorist and smashed a van with a bat, wow they even kept with GTA weapons.

"It was determined that they were emulating the character in that Grand Theft Auto game, going on a crime spree,"

Nassau's Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone told press, following them admitting that they were trying to portray those out of GTA. What a clever way to spend your time, go back and play the actual game, rather than attempting to imitate it.

Site Issues

We are having some issues with the HTML templates for this site, we are working as quickly as possible to try and fix this but in the mean time we apologise for the appearance of the site.
In the meantime, we have set up an emergency blog site for your use here, we hope to have this blog fully functional soon. This is also a preview of our new site, currently in development.

UPDATE: The blogger site is now fully operational again.

The Next Level Podcast- 4/7/08

In this episode of The Next Level podcast we celebrate independence day as well as discussing all of the news from the gaming community and talking about upcoming changes to the site. (Running Time: 1:03 hrs)

Download

Changes...

Coming soon is a podcast, in that podcast, somewhere, will be lots of information about the future of The Next Level. Keep a look out for all this new information that will appear on this post, adding more information once we know what is happening. This is being quite extensively planned, hence the lack of posts at the moment, don't worry, we will be putting content up soon after the weekend of plans!

PS3 firmware 2.40 released-Mixed response

The massive anticipation that people had for firmware 2.40 for the PS3 has been overshadowed by the lack of support that developers (at the moment) have given it. Many forum users are complaining that the in game music doesn't work as games don't support it, very few of the settings work, only one or two games have any trophy support whatsoever and overall it has failed to meet some peoples expectations that it would bring the PSN in line with XBL.

I downloaded it first thing this morning, and have not had any trouble such as people claiming it has bricked their PS3's etc etc. I kind of knew that it would be limited in use, and that the only real decent feature of it would be the fact I could send and view messages during gameplay and if my network had broke, I could sign back in.

At this moment I believe there are two available games (which have been patched up as well) which definitely support trophies, Buzz: Quiz TV and a updated Super Stardust: HD. Now both of which are good games, I recommend if you want a good arcade style shooter for PS3 that doesn't cost many pennies, get it. But seeing as I don't own either one of those games, I have not being able to check out the trophy menus, or the sound they make when they have been earned (which is the most important thing I know...).

Here is the list of games which will apparently support trophies:
BUZZ! Quiz TV
LittleBigPlanet
MotorStorm Pacific Rift
NBA 09
PAIN
PixelJunk Eden
Resistance 2
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
Warhawk

Now out of that list of 9 games, only 3 are out at the moment, and I went on Warhawk for the first time in a while this morning, and apart from the fact it was deserted, no trophies popped up for me, whether you have to be good or anything is another story, but not even in the trophy menu, so I'm thinking that it needs a patch. It also did not allow custom soundtracks.

Since Sony are playing catch up, it would of at least being nice to allow voice chat in game, cross game invites, and various other things to allow the service to work that bit better...That said, it now has a clock, so no more staying up claiming 'I didn't know the time'.

Edit: And a few things which I forgot to mention. There is now a little music player, which makes navigating tracks a lot easier and on the quiet, they have updated the playstation store, and now it is as fast as it should be and a few more navigation options.

Civilisation: Revolution Demo

Played the demo of this recently (big console one, not yet played the DS one), and after looking forward to it quite a lot, on starting up the game, I was left feeling quite disappointed. Now I'm aware the demo is quite limited in features as its a demo, yet it still didn't quite make me think this is the next generation of console strategy games.

To start with, they have decided to fit in with the 'console crowd' by having crazy characters attempt to guide you through the games much simplified interface. Taking a leaf out of 'The Sims', the main character takes you through each section and although it gives you choices over whether you want to listen to his random babbling of nonsense whilst a text message explaining it comes up with the help message. This character changes costume occasionally and is often pushed out the way by other Civ's leaders, barbarians and other people that pop up.

Control-wise, it has been simplified fairly well to the console's pads, with using the 2 analogue sticks to select units and move units around and the shoulder buttons being used to move between cities. Speaking of cities, although mine were fairly small and undeveloped, unlike in the early game part of Civ 4 for PC, micro-management has pretty much gone with your workers just generally working on cultivating the land around your city.Another thing that takes away from the game on my part (maybe unfairly comparing the audience of the console and PC version) is that once you have finished building a building, unit or project in a city on Civ 4, you were asked what you want to do next. On this one, I realised that for most of the game I played all of sudden I'd built a substantial army of warriors, but my city had become a bit of a slum.

Combat wise the game is pretty much identical to Civ 4, with the standard 'chance of winning' depending on a variety of factors and you have an ability to improve units not only from gaining experience, but from from finding a Knights castle etc. Also, with a group of three units of the same type you can link your units together as a stronger army.

Overall, Civilisation: Revolution did not impress me massively. But perhaps I am being unfair, for the basic console user who does not like the complexity of the PC version, or for a Civ veteran who simply wants a less intensive experience for their console, it is a good purchase, but personally, I think fireaxis bowed a little too low for the console fans, by not including basic voice acting like the Sid Meier from the tutorial in Civ 4, I also noticed some strange screen tearing issues, but hopefully that should be cleaned up for the final game.

For those looking to get into the Civ series for the first time, or if you simply want to play this series in a different way, you can pick this up now for PS3, 360 and a portable version for DS.

The Next Level Update! 30/06/08

Once the Internet connection finally returned to my house (after making sure we'd defiantly paid the bill), I got a chance to look at some of the news that people are talking about.

 

Diablo Returns!

Blizzard have shown a Diablo III teaser trailer at their Paris conference over the weekend, and its got Diablo fans HYPED! The game appears to be using a 3D engine, but locked down at a isometric perspective, in keeping with tradition, as your can see in the video below. Taken from CVG here is a list of what we know.

UPDATE: Here's a list of what we know so far:

• Set twenty years after the events of Lord of Destruction and will be a similar length to Diablo II
• 3D game engine, but locked in isometric viewpoint
• Will be available for both PC and Mac. No console.
• Two classes confirmed - the Barbarian and new class the Witch Doctor, who can control minds and use pets. There is currently five.
• Up to eight players co-operatively at present. Co-op played via battle.net
• Diablo III will concentrate more on quests, story & events that previously.
• WoW-like hotbar implemented. Is possible to play just using mouse.

Looks pretty good so far!

Spore creatures hit 1 million

In just a week since its release, the Spore Creature creator has seen users create over 1 million creatures. How many of those are creatures with questionable design choices remains un-answered, but millionth creatures was just an average bug thing. A statement from Maxis' executive producer Lucy Bradshaw said,

"Maxis is excited, humbled and inspired by the explosion of creativity that we've seen with the Spore Creature Creator online," "I'm amazed at the creations I see getting uploaded to the Sporepedia, whether it's a realistic looking bird or animal, a 10-eyed alien, or something completely bizarre and unexpected like a creature that looks like a motorcycle." 

No mention of a certain type of creature then.... Spore is due for release on September 5th in the UK.

Someone's busy...

Apparently, EA have stated that currently 5 Battlefield games are in development. Battlefield Heroes' (the mostly free online shooter) executive producer Ben Cousins has spoke at the Paris GDC about their being various games in development, however most are being kept underwraps.

"We've got five [Battlefield] titles in development, which is more than you'd expect."
"We're actually developing a battlefield game with Neowiz for the Korean market and separate from Heroes,"

So that leaves 3, which many people are guessing means different battlefield games for each of the key home platforms, which means that they must either be substantially different, or are simply putting a spin on things. In other Battlefield news, Bad Company was released, and not long after people wanted to take the mainly online shooter online, they began complaining about dodgy servers for the Xbox 360 version of the game, including connecting to game and stat tracking.

Their fool proof method which is not really fix, more something to give them more time to fix it, is to turn your 360 off for 20 min's, then back on again. Almost as sound advice as Rockstar's guide to getting GTA IV to work on the PS3....

In other news...

Xbox 360

Microsoft are considering family friendly Halo games following some rather odd questions in a recent market survey. Box art has been released for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (erm, woo) and the 360 DRM tool for those with new consoles has been released, letting you play all that content you bought a while ago! Other than that and general game news, still a bit quiet on the 360 front.

PS3 and PSP

However, Sony are really beginning to show off their in-game XMB, which is due for  release some time in July, with a new video on the PS blog showing off the features, why on earth it took so long I don't know. Kaz 'Riiidddgge Racer' Hirai (sorry, I'm never going to be able to let that drop) has announced that as well as a Wii style weather and news channel things being released, there will also be a video store, which will be eventually cross-compatible with the PSP. There is also news of a few more games being ported for development, yet hiding behind all this, they released a statement saying that although it has begun to decrease, losses are still $1.15 Billion on the Playstation section....ouch...And God Of War 3 is apparently ready to show off at E3, which many speculate is the game that the BBC blogger caused such a stir about by claiming it was the best looking game he'd ever seen at a Sony event, amongst a few other people.

Wii and DS

Summer line up was revealed and its quite a long list, though I'm struggling to pick out many massive games in the line up, apart from of course...Kung Fu Panda and Pimp my ride....erm. Anyway, head over here to see the list, as its quite long! 2K are going to be using Havok physics for the Wii and Castlevania Wii is a 3D beat 'em up...randomly.

The mysteries of firmware

Is anyone else confused by the current constant rumour and speculation of the arrival of firmware 2.4 for the PS3. I originally heard that it should be out already, then next week and now in three weeks, just in time for Sony's E3 conference surprise surprise. I think this has to be the proper firmware update, the big one, the one that gives us everything that playstation users have wanted for quite some time.

I was recently listening to a podcast, where one of the panel said that they are now ready to actually start using the PS3 more. They said that the XMB is a much cleaner,  faster interface than the 360 dashboard and if the improvements that they are promising are included, it should be getting towards matching it in terms of features.

CVG recently reported the total list of things you should be able to access with the in-game XMB, these have not been confirmed by Sony:

• Friend category
• View, send, receive messages
• Manage downloads
• Set the vibration feature of the controller
• Sign in to PlayStation Network
• Register friends
• Manage Bluetooth devices
• Terminate the game
• Music category
• Use the system BGM
• Work the system BGM operation panel
• Settings category
• Assign controllers
• View profiles
• Game category
• Set audio devices
• Use the voice changer

Not a bad load of features. Also, trophies, which I thought we'd have to wait for Home to appear to actually see, are included, with Bronze, Silver and Gold, with Platinum given for getting all the trophies, no points are involved. However, I hope I don't have to replay games to get trophies for them, and that it can simply look at my saves and know what I have done and haven't done, otherwise, that will be a complete pain.

A source has also said that it won't be completely hobbled version of the system such as background music. Apparently it promises to allow the user to use their media server and external devices to play music in game and that they can navigate tracks etc the same way then can whilst not in a game.

While I'm not sure about how Sony can afford to keep doing this to their system, and most of this should of been their at launch, hopefully, it should allow them to make the system more stable. Although this information apparently comes from a source at Sony and is not being dismissed by the gaming press, I'm waiting to see what else changes by the release.

Here's a video (not by a hacker, it appears to be a dev kit version) of the 'beta' in game XMB, its pretty slow tester, but does show the basics

Thank you for stating the obvious

A started my web browser this morning to be greeted with a news report on the BBC website. Titled 'Youths 'Buy violent games online'', it goes into detail about an investigation carried out by WHOTS, Welsh Head of trading standards into looking into which retailers sell games, classed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as 18 certificates.

Now personally, I know well and good the result of the survey, without even reading it.   I did obviously, and it found that in over 44 purchases, 38 of them were accepted. They had a group of volunteers aged 12-16 who had to try and buy games through postal orders. The games bought ranged from Manhunt 2 (the press's favourite, if not the reviewers), Hitman, The Godfather and of course GTA IV.

For a fact I know that people can very easily buy games off the net, and not be questioned about age or anything. Another factor that also comes into account is that at the end of the day, there is no human operating or controlling these systems and knowing who buys what compared to going into a shop. Meaning that if anyone should be controlling it, it should the parents.

But because the majority of parents are completely oblivious to the fact they have  game ratings for a reason, they are happy to get them in stores, nevermind off the Internet. At the moment I buy nearly all games off the Internet, using my ingenious method of using Google to find the cheapest one, and probably only buying them off it once. That has meant I've ended up with the odd American copy, but it sure was cheap.

But, before I get off-topic, I think that although it is breaking the law, something needs to be done to stop parents blatantly buying games for their children, no matter what age they are, if the game is classed as a 18 for example. But I still believe that some under 18's have no reason NOT playing these games. Quite a good proportion of us teenagers are not hanging round on street corners with a bottle of white lightning and  spliff, and have avoided the major influence into doing these things, other people. Playing Hitman may make me think 'Yeah this is cool' but at the same time what I am really saying is 'Yeah this is a cool role I'm playing'

Overall then, this survey has proven to a great many people, absolutely nothing. This goes on in the same way on a Saturday afternoon you seem Dads out with their kids in GAME, buying the GTA collection because the characters on the front looked 'cartoony'.

The Next Level Update- 23/06/08

Yeah, it's that time again, to find all those random news stories that should be in this blog, and put em in it.

PES 09 comes out of nowhere

Quite a few of us were thinking that PES had gone into hiding after quite a poor showing last year, 08 was far better than the next-Gen versions of PES 6, but various issues plagued not only the PS3 version, but 360 as well. The developers reportedly put this down to their current engine they were working on did not agree with next-Gen hardware.

But PES has recently arrived again, with its 09 edition apparently having massively improved graphics, new moves, better control elements and key online features, mind you, having a online feature that worked and did not require about 15 different ID's as most Konami games do would be a start.

Knifes linked to games

The well known quiet and rational Boris Johnson (.....) now the Mayor of London, has  managed to link games with yet another form of violence. Nevermind the fact that society in the UK has gone down the pan, he claims that as well as 'drug addled celebrities', violent videogames are also to blame for the rise in the knife culture.

Of course, this is not he first time Mr. Johnson has come out against video games, he wrote a piece in The Telegraph last year claiming it was "time to garrote the Game Boy and paralyze the PlayStation". Perhaps so, but perhaps focusing on the more underline causes of violent crime by youths, as in maybe the fact they know they nearly always get away with it. Actually no, scrap that, lets go play Manhunt.

Spore porn is banned

I'm not surprised, but not long after the Spore Creature Creator was released in order  to help populate the Spore world before the game's release later this year, various creatures with questionable shapes started appearing. Partly fuelled by PC Gamers attempt at creating one, people went mad creating creatures in the shape of everything from swear words to appendages. EA have now taken action, sending emails to users who have abused the T&C's, saying their account has been flagged and could possibly be banned. So it doesn't look like a nation of porn stars will be taking over the galaxy...sorry guys..

Stuff Section

PS3 and PSP Stuff

Quite a lot for the PS3 this week, with firmware 2.4 being confirmed for definite meaning in-game XMB and trophies on their way, and 2.36 making everything a bit more stable...Also, PS3 is storming sales in Japan, mainly down to release of MGS4, SCEE president David Reeves has said that the PS3 will eventually outstrip the PS2 lifetime sales and for Sony, restoring game and TV profits is a priority. Shame, not too much game news.

360 News

Apparently, Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath appears to be coming along well, the world debut of Cod5: World Of War was released on XBLM and MS want to be the first with Xbox 3, 720 or whatever they are going to call it. Their E3 line up has also been leaked, with 'Lips' a Singstar esque karaoke game amongst the games going to be on show.

Wii and DS Stuff

Quite a few new titles for DS have been shown, such as Ninja Gaiden DS, Bleach: Dark Souls and a few others. A Mum has developed a screen protector to save TV's from flying Wiimotes after seeing hers being destroyed and more Mums have gone crazy in Asda for a cooking game for the DS, which contains over 250 menu ideas and step by step recipes. They have sold around 10,000 copies in the first hour and apparently its still selling really well. The future for DS?

Yawn + Update

Just a quick note to say that the video is coming, just had some issues with the editing process. I'm holding back saying anything at the moment about my view on the event until you've seen the video. Will be posting again later today, with something a bit more substantial... I've also put the podcast up now.

Matt's Update:

The 'issues' have not really been directly linked to the editing process, more to fixing some problems on our editing computer. If all things go to plan the post production process should start tommorow and end hopefully sometime next week. Be under no illusions, this is a big project and will take a long time to edit so don't expect it to be online on monday.

The Next Level Podcast 002

In this episode, we talk about all the crazy news that been happening in the gaming world, such as the Tecmo vs. Itagaki saga, the fastest selling games and charts and loads of other irrelevant stuff....and MGS4! Listen in!

First Segment & Second Segment

GT4 Endurance Race Blog

Hello, the day has finally come for our 24 hour endurance race, we're going to be posting updates regularly so keep an eye on this for our thoughts of what's happening today!

11:40: Well, just getting everything set up at the moment, getting ready to record the podcast with no plan whatsoever! Here are some pictures I took as we were getting ready.

11:50:Waiting for the crew to arrive, listening to dramatic MGS music get us in the mood, will probably hear it later.

14:39:Podcast done, slight problem however. None of us can remember the password or username for our podcast hoster...whoops....

15:00: Would start now, but still got to delay it, aiming to film some intro shots soon. Found an alternative way for the podcast to be posted, will be here soon! Hell, I may go into stressed mode soon.

15:22: We're getting there, podcast on its way, should be starting around 4ish, going to be a long long time. Filmed some introduction scenes and we're almost ready to go.

15:22: Here's the podcast, with the second segment. (podcast has now been moved to a seperate post)

16:38 We are around 30 minutes into the race, Josh is driving. We had some serious Tyre problems in the first few laps and by the time we had fixed it we were in 6th place and a whole 6 minutes behind first place. Still, we have enough time to catch up...

16:55 We are now in 5th place and approaching the one hour mark. The new tyres seem to be working fine and we are establishing a pitting routine.

17:01 Wahey, we just hit the one hour mark. Only 23 hours left to go then...

17:20 More good news, after a number of fast laps Josh has got into 4th place and we are now on the tail of the 3rd place car. Currently we are managing to pit every 3rd lap which is not ideal because most of the AI can last longer than us.

17:41 Josh took 3rd place but then crashed almost immediately afterwards allowing him to be overtaken and put back into 4th place. Eventually he pulled back into 3rd position and then overtook the car in front thinking he would be in 2nd place but it turned out he had only lapped the car in last place.

18:30:Josh is here, and phew that was fairly tough, but not as boring as I thought it would be, now we eating our food and supporting Matt!

19:44: Matt has beat my lap time of 7mins by 10 seconds. He's going OK, not far off first comparatively.

20:06: Just been playing around with the camera, recording little updates of whats been going on, got quite a lot of footage at the moment, should be able salvage, oo I don't know, about 5 mins of good footage from it. And he's nearly about to overtake.

20:12: Someone looks determined, don't they!

20:42: Matt has repeated my mistake by forgetting to pit, he struggles round a lap and gets overtaken in the process...silly boy. Well, in his last action before I take over, lets see if he can pull us back in front.

20:44: Time for me to get ready to go.

20:53 Matt is here again and I'm very tired after my rather dramatic 2:30 hour stint in the car. You'll be glad to hear that I did manage to pull us back into first place so all that's left for Josh to do is keep the lead.

22:53 Well we over a quarter of the way through the race, we are firmly in first place and so far have completed 55 laps of the track. Right now, the end seems a very long way away

23:40: Yes it does seem a very long way away now. It's Josh again, and its nice to have a bit of a break, but I have to do that 4 more times at least...phew.

00:33: Boy it's late here, we've now all switched over to 'GT Time' as our late night pizza and coolant (soft drinks) need to be sorted out, Matt is still going, although is zoned out completely.

09:39: Hello again, good morning and all that. Matt is racing at the moment, got the hard part out the way, the night shift was very difficult. At the moment we are 17 hours and 38 minutes in, and are in the lead. And this morning I was greeted with a copyright notice from EA themselves, lovely.

10:15: Apart from Matt's occasional moaning that I seem to be rigging the time to make him go longer, we're getting through it. My next session should be my last and Matt will be crossing the finish line. Hopefully. In the mean time, sleep depravation causes incredible stress at my broken Internet connection, its being a pain.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post basically stopped then for various reasons and we will be posting more in-depth looks at the event soon. But we are really tired at the moment, so all the media etc will be sorted out either on Thursday or Friday.

A new contender in the handheld battle?

The handheld market has always been ruled by Nintendo. The Game Boy is probably more famous than any other console before or after it and for many it was there first step into the world of video games. In fact I have owned every version of the game boy since it was first launched (with the exception of the latest: the 'Micro'). However, I was never really that attracted to the DS. All that I saw in it was a gimmicky control system that disguised the sub-standard console behind. Instead I settled for a PSP as it had the more power, the bigger screen and much more multimedia capabilities. However, the masses disagreed with me and went for the DS and needless to say Nintendo stayed at the top of the podium.

Nintendo then saw how attractive these "innovative" controls were and decided to take a similar approach with the Wii. Incredibly after being behind in the last two generations of the home console market, Nintendo were pushed straight to the front as everyone went Wii crazy.

However Nintendo now have something else to worry about and this time it comes from Apple.

A few years ago, the worldwide leader in the portable music player category was the Sony Walkman. It was one of those brands that with infamous. However, Apple released a little thing called the iPod and it became so successful that practically everyone now owns one. There iTunes store stole millions of record sales away from the 'real' music stores like HMV and lead to the music charts being forced to include online sales. Then last year they released the iPhone, once more they overtook practically every other mobile phone and smartphone manufacturer.

At this point you might be expecting me to unveil the Apple iGame or something that will put Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo out of business, but in fact this new DS contender is already out on the market. With its version 2.0 upgrade, the iPhone now supports 3rd party applications and this means that it can now play games.

'So what?', you say 'Most phones can play games, but the DS is still the market leader.' The iPhone however has a couple of tricks up it's sleeve. Firstly it has a multi-touch screen which, as the name suggests, means it can detect multiple points of contact as opposed to the DS only picking up one point of contact. Secondly the iPhone has a built in 3-axis accelerometer which, in lament's terms, means it can match the Wiimote and Sixaxis in their motion controls.

So the iPhone is a combination of the DS and Wii in terms of its controls, but what about everything else?

Well the new version, 'iPhone 3G', is a 3G Phone, a Camera, an iPod, a Sat Nav unit and a Calculator. It can surf the web, it can send emails, it can do instant and SMS messaging, it supports YouTube and is compatible with 3rd party software. It supports Music, Photos and Video and has a large high-quality screen. Just in this one device it can both match and then beat the PSP and DS, but the final and killer question is: what are the games actually like?

Well at the moment it remains to be seen, but from the footage I have seen of Sega's 'Super Monkey Ball' running on it, it is looking positive. (View the Keynote here and skip to around 22:00 minutes)

Apple have announced that the iPhone 3G will be sold globally at a maximum price of $199 or around £100. I know that at that price and with all those features that I definitely want one and I guess that you probably do as well, the only problem will be trying to get your hands on one.

A gamers trip to the supermarket

Went to [insert brand name here] today, mainly to get supplies for the 24 hour deathathon on Tuesday, but I also, being a gamer, a took a look at some of the games they had on show. Oh they were classics. It makes me laugh as someone who knows a little bit about games (not that I'm special or anything, most people would be interested) when good games, but old ones, are priced at similar prices, or lower, as those made on a shoestring budget with all the programming prowess of a kitten.

For example, on one particular PC game section, both Rome: Total War, Medieval: Total  War (not the newer one) and STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl were priced at around £5-6, which is pretty good deals if you don't own them, especially the total war games, but below that, 'AIR FORCE [[LOCK ON]]' (yes, was wrote like that) with cover art which would deemed below standard by a  nursery assistant, was priced at £8. This may not seem much, but I remember seeing it a while ago, priced even higher.

A problem that that I and many others seem to suffer from is a deep feeling of sadness when games we know are excellent titles, Final Fantasy XII and Okami and hidden behind 'Hard Rock Casino' and 'Super Kart F1', with a price point which matches them. Why, why, why. But, although we are talking supermarkets here, and I expect to see budget crap around every turn, but this is also becoming the case in mainstream game shops.

Can this be blamed on the Wii's casual influence. Partly I suppose, as games are generally being sold to more and more people, and this includes junk like Wii Party. I was going to buy some and see what they were actually like, but would prefer to wait till, I don't know, a good game comes out perhaps.

The Next Level Update- 16/06/08

How many of us missed Fathers day....I almost did...whoops, but with MGS4 coming out, who needs Father's when we have Snake..Snake?...SNAAAAAAKKEEEE!

COD5 unveiled, the World is at War...again...

COD4 was a awesome game, no question about it, released at the back end of a very strong year, it boasted mulitplayer more popular than Halo 3 and a intense, but short single player campaign. But, people were left dismayed with the reports that Treyarch, who to be fair are good developers, were going to handle COD5 and take it back to WWII.

Me, being as open minded as possible (WTF Fools, teh cod4 iz rad!!!!11111) decided that I was just going to see what they come up with. CoD 5: World At War is taking us to a new theatre of war (one that was already seen in MoH: Pacific Assault or whatever it was) focused around the pacific theatre and the Russians moving into Germany. Treyarch apparently have decided to mess with the AI of the enemy Japanese infantry, by making them much more terrifying to fight against. Treyarch have almost come out and said it is a survival horror shooter, which sounds a bit Wolfenstein-ish to me.

But, the senior producer for the game, Noah Heller has said that the game has to redefine and stun the shooter genre, otherwise people will lose interest in the game and it could possibly harm the franchise . It's promising a similar but more balanced mulitplayer modes, but I'm unsure how this could possibly move the series forward in the leap which Cod4 did.

Sam's going all quiet

With Ubisoft's 360 exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction been in production for such a long time, for a while it had completely vanished from my mind, which is not hard to do I accept. But Sarcastic Gamer have recently reported that they have heard from various people at Ubisoft that cult actor Michael Ironside, Mr. Gruff who voiced Fisher in all the previous games has quietly been given the boot. Many comments on websites reporting on this have been mostly negative, many comparing it to David Hayter not doing Solid Snake....unthinkable, but no official word from Ubisoft yet, maybe Sam is now so stealthy, he has no tongue, rendering his ability to interrogate eastern European militia in perfect English useless.

Jaffe unleashes anger at Nintendo

No, jafa cakes have not had a uprising against Nintendo for failing to make a game about them (Cake or biscuit?) but David Jaffe, outspoken God Of War creator has wrote on his personal blog some strong words against Nintendo and their marketing person Laurent Fischer. Fischer claimed in an interview with Edge that it was only 'geeks and otaku' that wanted more storage space in Wii, outraging many Nintendo fans and non-fans. In the rant, which refers to Fischer as a she (I thought she was a guy, but that's beside the point), Jaffe wrote:

"Ok, so if this is true [the geek statement from Edge 190], it's really, really sad.
And not so much because Nintendo seems to be telling a chunk of its loyal fanbase to go f**k itself, but because it's just reeks of junior high school vibe immaturity bullshit."

I like Nintendo. And I LOVE old Nintendo. And both old and new Nintendo have brought SO MUCH to this industry that they SHOULD be proud and excited and even a little cocky when it comes to their amazing accomplishments... But this statement, especially coming from a marketing person, reeks of one of two things:
a- arrogance at a level that should make Nintendo- if this statement reflects the core of the company- very ashamed.

b- a marketing person who has no real clue about games and thinks she's being cute and coy by dissing the 'geeks' cause she thinks the mainstream loves them now....if this is the case, she really needs someone to sit her down and explain to her which side her f***ing toast has been buttered on for years and will eventually get back to being buttered on...."

Not the words of a happy man I believe. My opinion on this is quite simple and has been like this from day one of the Wii launch. When asked by non-gaming friends and relatives about it, I always said it was a brilliant machine, and Nintendo are very clever, but for longevity, it's not for me, there just ain't enough quality games on it. But, this is someone who updated their PS3 HDD to the maximum capacity, so fit quite snugly into Nintendo's 'Geek' category. but honestly, what do marketing people know!

Wow that was a long section...Other Stuff

MGS4 is out!

As you may of guessed Metal Gear Solid 4 is out, I'm almost to the end of it, minus a few mammoth cutscenes, and so far, it's been everything I expected and so much more. And it's not just me who thinks that. Browsing round a few websites, the game has been very well received, especially by fans of the series, who praise Hideo Kojima for wrapping the story up in the best way possible. Though it appears that many supposedly 'joke' forum threads, such as looking at the MGS3 characters and how they fit into the later game, has come true, clever work Kojima.

EA sued

Electronic Arts has been hit with a lawsuit against it for blatant anticompetitive conduct' in the American football genre especially. This is mainly down to the fact that EA has bought every license under the sun, meaning that if you want to play a licensed game, you need a EA one. We'll keep an eye on how this develops.

 

That's enough for this one, be sure to be around Tuesday and Wednesday for the GT4 endurance race feature blogs, and a podcast.

Reviews are just that, reviews...

Metal Gear Solid is a funny old series. Although massively loved and admired by its fans, those skeptical of the series have dismissed it as being overblown, and not seen on par with series such as GTA. There are always many complaints about the cutscenes, the controls and quite a lot of things which have become 'Metal Gear Cliche's', and this makes reviews very difficult to actually judge.

A few years ago, I read a lot of reviews, a lot of previews and generally a lot of game  related texts.I still read reviews nowadays, but find I take them with a pinch of salt, rather than deciding if I buy a game based on review scores. I even don't look at aggregate scores such as those on Metacritic , as these may also be misleading.

It's common that people get really wound up about a good or bad review, depending on how they love the game, or that people single mindedly focus on one review score from one magazine or website. This has become paticulary clear with regards to the review scores of Metal Gear Solid 4. As far as I was concerned, I was going to get it, as I've played all the previous games (minus the 'Acid' PSP games), and enjoyed the majority of all the games, minus the odd bit here and there.

I read the 'Nega review' on Joystiq which takes all the negative points from various reviews and  stiches them into one. Now this highlights all the parts of the game which are fairly criticised, but does not dispute the fact that this game does a incredibly good job of tying up the majority of the loose ends.

However, I did find it odd the way a recent technology blog on the BBC website talked  about the game. The blogger took a look at the Metacritic rating, dismissed it and then focused mainly on two review scores, Eurogamer and Edge, which both gave it 8/10. Now I could be accused here of simply sticking up for MGS4 and that the game is not as good as I think it is and it simply doesn't deserve a 'perfect 10'. But, I believe that without playing any game, a review is simply a wrote up opinion, and using any review, no matter how good the reputation is, without playing the game is not good practice.

Hence, why I always give my opinion about a game on this blog, if I believe it's going to have to do a lot to make it better, I mean it, and vice versa. Anyway, I'm off to psychologically prepare myself for a 24 hour race next week, wish me luck!