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.

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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!

Gran Turismo 24 Hour Endurance- 17/06/08

Here's a sneak peak at what's going to be happening next week, when Matt and me attempt to do something quite insane.


GT4 Endurance Race Special- Teaser Trailer from The Next Level UK on Vimeo.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Minute by Minute

My copy of MGS4 arrived today. Here is a minute by minute, sometimes more sometimes less so account of what happened with the game, it's also as spoiler free as I can make it.

3:22pm- I spend 2 minutes searching for my TV remote (messy me) whilst cbeebies blares out at me, I think I know which one I'd prefer to have on, but I'll play the game anyway. Spends every few seconds gazing at the box.

3:24- Should I read the manual or not. Well I should read it, but there will be time for that I'm sure.

3:26- Boot the game up, ah crap an 8 minute install screen with a giant model of Old Snake on the screen, smoking his usual cigarette. Ironic health warnings appear on the screen, telling you at some points to make sure litter such as ash and cigarette butts are put in a ashtray...Very clever. Also warns me that this game is only for use exclusively on the Playstation 3 system, really, its worth buying the game for these messages alone.

3:28- Snake starts another ciggie...Damn, pressing X doesn't work, thought it may of been a Kojima ploy.

3:30- Now some game hints, 4 minutes left....Lovely smoke effects.

3:31- Sparky Snake lights up again, I'm glad I didn't read the manual.

3:33- If he smokes this much no wonder he's aged, starts another one....99%....'Press Start'...cue witty remark from Snake.

3:34- I promise to not have any spoilers in this...If you don't want to know stuff don't read.

3:35- Meh, typical MGS menu, various options include;
- Photo Album
- Virtual Range (training and practicing area)
- Metal Gear Online
- Extras
Will check them out later.

3:37- Hmm, will go for Naked Snake difficulty, with the standard being Solid Snake, but from the descriptions, does not seem to be too much difference.

3:38- OK, very odd, trust me the introduction video is very odd, quite disturbing, yet makes sense by the end of it.

3:39- Wooo, awesomeness, sorry, but it does look really good at the moment, although this isn't the in game engine...Loading...

3:40- Typical MGS intro texts, cutscene time, one of many I'm presuming. Snake's voice certainly sounds older, at the moment, great job by David Hayter (Snakes voice actor)

3:44- What can I say, grisly, shocking, visceral, epic, this is truly impressive stuff. I begin to play for only a short time, another cutscene, so far this has opened in a much more high energy style than MGS3.

3:46- I'm Playing again, Otacon is helping me through this early sections, the cutscene's blend together with real time gameplay much better, no pauses.

3:48- It kicks off big time, and I'm less than 10 minutes in!.

3:49- Not sure how much is scripted, but this is just insane, I thought the trailers looked good, visual effects galore.

3:51- Very clever..hehe, you'll know what  I mean when you play it.

3:54- First save point, and we slip back in time, and something clever CAN happen. Read into that what you will.

3:57- Ah a reunion, I'm explained a few things to, helpful I do say.

3:59- It begins formally, and yay, the first codec conversation.

4:07- First taste of combat, good, if a little disorienting, even though I have played the online beta, it works far better than MGS3.

4:10- Was skeptical of the 'Threat Ring', but I take it back, works a treat.

4:13-  Verdict, fun, but damn tense (not official verdict!!)

4:15- The screen is covered with information, but does not overcomplicate things.

4:19- The area I'm in is the one Hideo Kojima demoed, looks far better though.

4:25- Near death experience, I really need to be more careful, the AI is much smarter.

4:27- Snakes Ipod is 30GB apparently, I'm listening to a podcast, with the promise of downloading new ones in the future, this is clever, so very cleverly done.

4:32- I want to find something out in the manual, oh joy. It smells funny...The manual that is, now the podcast is going off, Its destroying the atmosphere. The Ipod does work like a normal Ipod.

4:37- Time for the introduction of the adorable little Metal Gear Mk. II, and the cutscene everyone has seen bits of. Get the Solid eye and a few weapons, onward and upwards, and the little Metal Gear offers a welcome does of light heartedness.

4:42- I'm going to be good and tranquillise them....Holy cow, this game knows how the create a warzone.

4:44-  Remember what Kojima did....RPG!!.

4:47- Still very impressed with the graphics, look incredible, espicially from higher points on the maps, routes are much more varied as well, even more replay value than the previous games.

4:51- It's all becoming a bit more natural and intuitive now, sneaking past wounded soldiers.

4:55-Ah at last, the faithful cardboard box, then a playboy mag, I seem to attract these items......

4:58- Little plot hints etc are being exposed all the time, its hard to notice them though.

5:00- Ah the cola drinking monkey, I know what's coming at this point, and I'll call it a day for this update now.

Well that was is, my first look at MGS4, can't wait get back to it, it was really impressive, no doubt I'll post another blog a bit more in-depth view wise later this week.

Help out the Next Level UK blog

For those few people who are reading this blog, you may have noticed a bit of inconsistency in the blog posting. This is mainly down to both the writers for this blog being very busy. A new podcast is on the way, as after this Wednesday, both of us are free.

But, we are really looking for more people to add to the writing team, so send us a email at josh9989@hotmail.co.uk with a reason why you should join and a example blog post, and we'll get back to you. We are looking for console specific writers if you feel like focusing on one console.

The Next Level Update 09/06/08

We're here again, slightly late, for the Next Level Update.

GTA IV DLC delayed...No its not....Yes it is

News coming out of Take 2 is that the DLC has been delayed till Q1 2009, which is quite a way off yet. The details, surprisingly, have not been revealed, and also no details of which platform the DLC has been delayed for.

But, Microsoft have released a statement saying that the DLC is still on track for Autumn 2008, claiming it doesn't mean it will be released in 2009.

'The GTA IV episodic content for the Xbox 360 is still on track for release in 2008'

Well that wasn't confusing was it. So, going on that, it looks like any DLC planned for PS3 will have been pushed back, although Take 2 did come out and say it was not down to development issues.

Xbox Live Marketplace is overcrowded

Poor Microsoft, in their attempt to provide tons of content for people to download, they have managed to cram it so full with stuff. that it is impossible to find something on it. Around 17,000 items (no, I didn't count them) are on the marketplace, and its not that the servers are too full, its that the interface simply is not
designed around that much content.

Aaron Greenberg has come out saying he is unhappy with the sheer amount of stuff and the navigation difficulty, and as well as their decision to be taking poorly performing items off XBLM. With no spring update coming out, looks like development is being focused on XBLM.

Tomonobu Itagaki leave Tecmo

Ninja Gaiden creator, Tomonobu Itagaki has left Ninja Gaiden developer, Tecmo, claiming un-paid completion bonuses and is leaving his post on July 1. He filed a complaint to the Tokyo District Court that he was not paid the correct amount and sending a complaint against the president of Tecmo. He has also claimed $1.4 million in damages. Someone clearly is not very happy.

Now Tecmo have replied by claiming that this is all distortions and denied what they have been accused of. Seems not to of done enough though, as Tecmo's shares have fallen sharply following the fact possibly their most valuble employee is leaving, and even after releasing an apology to everyone related to the company, it's not gone down all too well.

Other Stuff

PS3 news

Couple of things on the PS3 front, both the Getaway (oh boo hoo) and 8 days (actually damn) have been canned, whilst it has been revealed that the Bioshock version will have quite a few updates, tweaks when it is re-developed by a mystery developer. Also, in the US, they have a online subscription based show which you download from the PSN called Qore, and possibly will be released in Europe.

Capcom Games

There was a Capcom event, which they showed off Resident Evil 5 (a pumped up version of 4 by the looks of things), Dark Void, Bionic Commando and Street Fighter IV, amongst other things. Bionic Commando even promises online mulitplayer and Resi 5 may be having co-op, have the Japanese got multiplayer!?!


Ubisoft Event

Ubisoft also showed off a few games, like Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia and a teaser trailer of Beyond Good And Evil 2. For those who missed the first one, play it, as it was a good game that nobody played.

Wii stuff

The Wii now has a 100 Wii ware in developers, but apparently everyone who wants storage space for all these games are geeks according to the Managing Director of Nintendo of Europe, Laurent Fischer. Thats nice then.

Demos- Battlefield: Bad Company

I decided to take a look at Battlefield:Bad Company.

I had heard a lot about this game, since its announcement quite a bit back now. It was to promise an advancement on the Battlefield series, with nearly fully destructible environments, a thrilling single player campaign, coupled with focused multiplayer. This demo allows you to play the first missions of the game and a multiplayer mode.

Before I begin on the multiplayer, the basic idea behind the game is that you are part of B Company, a company in which the soldiers which have not behaved particularly great in the army are put into, rather than prison. You are based in a conflict in the fictional eastern European country of Serkozache, and your company fight more for personal gain than the good of the army etc. During the demo mission, you are the new guy, who has joined the casually commanded company. You are ordered to attack an enemy outpost to clear it out for a convoy of vehicles. You grab a vehicle, of the many available i picked the bog standard Humvee and the 3 other squad members jumped in.

The dialog behind the characters is superb, playing half on the stereotyped American army style of things, whilst having a subtle satire behind the scenes. Animation is also good, as I saw two of my squad mates playing rock, paper, scissors whilst waiting to go. The demo's main purpose, being the first mission of the retail game, is to introduce you to the concepts and characters in B:BC, offering a variety of pop up, non-intrusive tips of some of the options, such as changing a radio station in you vehicle.

A lot has been made of the destructible environments, and for the most part they work well. Walls are destroyed in various ways depending on the strength of the weapon and at one point, when running through an artillery barrage, sandbags, trees and mortar were flying everywhere. It's nice to be able to run over trees, though I did find myself subconsciously slowing down after playing GTA IV, where mother natures finest are invincible.

The only disappointing part is that buildings cannot be completely flattened, whether this is a gameplay choice or not, the developers have not allowed the building's supports to be destroyed. The way the buildings are damaged then, is much more similar to BLACK, seen on PS2 and Xbox, than Crysis.

Moving on from the single player, the multiplayer portion has one game mode 'Gold Rush', where a teams of attackers and defenders attempt to destroy or protect gold stashes, over one map, Oasis. Similar to the single player, whilst the maps are large in size, areas remain closed off until you have taken the gold stash, which allows for the attack to remain focused. Similar to BF:2142, the number of classes has been reduced, mirroring those found in CoD4.

The actual gameplay was really quite enjoyable, for someone who was more used to CoD's style than Battlefield's, it offers a easy to pick up, lag free experience. The respawns are fairly quick, and the game allows the tide of battle to shift very easily, one of the weaker points I felt of Cod4. The demo allows you to play in ranked matches up to rank 4, in which you can unlock a weapon to be used at retail.

Overall then, BF:BC has done a good job of convincing me to get the retail. That comes with eight maps and thankfully, weapons that can all be unlocked at level 25, rather than being forced into purchasing them. Graphics could be touched up in places, some areas look pretty barren, but generally, the game has a polished feel, no doubt helped by the beta release.

Battlefield: Bad Company is due for release on June 23rd for Xbox 360 and PS3

Metal Gear Solid 4- Reviews

I thought, seeing as we cant actually review MGS4 until it comes out in stores in a few days time, that I would post a couple of links to 'Real' reviews from across the Internet.

Games Radar UK Review

IGN AU Review

CVG Review

Edge/Next Gen Review

Metacritic

The reviews seem to be very positive about MGS4 with most giving between 90% to 100%. The Metacritic score, at time of writing, is 95%.

This game is bound to sell in its hundreds of thousands and probably also shift a hell of a lot of PS3s. If your into the Metal Gear series then you simply have to buy this new instalment and even if you haven't played a single other Metal Gear game this still promises to be enjoyable regardless.

Kick the ball with 500% more realism...

It's begun again, the annual FIFA announcement comes as FIFA 09 is coming with 250 key improvements following a first look from Gamemaster Magazine. The games due out in Autumn, the usual time for the FIFA and PES releases are. But this year, with it being very close last year, will FIFA overtake PES as the 'Footballers Football game'.

Many of the improvements for FIFA don't seem to just be the usual gimmick they bring in with each game, some work better than others. They seem to be generally improvements in making the game of footy better, for example an increased responsiveness, quicker, soother passing and various other animation improvements, to make the players appear less like bow legged puppets and more like actual humans.

So, can this overtake what many people presume to be the perfect footballing game series, Pro Evolution Soccer. Well personally after playing PES 2008 to death, I think it can beat it. I was one of the poor people who played PES 08 on PS3, and it was a hobbled mess of slow FPS. With this FIFA promising better animation and collision, that actually relates to the player, this could well knock PES of its shaky top spot.

I player UEFA Euro 2008 recently and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. As I've always played PES, and thought FIFA was a complete waste of time, it seemed that UEFA was as good, if not better than PES. Now obviously, if they have rebuilt the engine and completely gave the interface a redesign, PES may be OK, but I reckon with the improvements, such as my favourite 'realistic tumbling' (where players fall over basically) FIFA could really give it a run for its money.

FIFA 09 will be coming this Autumn, on every possible platform in existence, possibly even the Atari 2600

The Next Level Update 01/06/08

Its the first of June, which typically means the weather is going to start acting more like summer and less like a mutant offspring of spring and autumn. But summer means a slowdown in gaming news....Does it?

Oh please, shut up

Konami have told everyone who has been harping on about the length of the cutscenes in the Metal Gear Solid 4, to basically, be quiet. Various early reviewers of the game have noted upon the length, not necessarily calling it a negative aspect of the game. It has been mentioned that Konami told reviewers not to release the length of the cutscenes (reputedly 90 minutes), though reviews hinted at it, with IGN claiming half the game was taken up by them, with the OPSM (Official Playstation Magazine) saying they were the length of the three Godfather movies rolled into one and that its around a third of the game. I'm still positive it's going to the best movie I've ever played.

"UHH...GAMES....GAAMMMESS"

Sound familiar? According to Slash, the fuzzy haired guitarist (I do know what bands he played for!) has come out saying that games turn kids into gaming zombies. He claims that people who play Guitar Hero don't pick up a real guitar and that real guitar playing and learning to play it is much more enjoyable, if not as instantly gratifying. However, Slash also says that its a great way to spread new 'killer' Rock 'n' Roll through Guitar Hero, which normally kids who listen to conventional radio etc. I'm sure he'll remember how much he prefers playing Guitar Hero when the next sponsor money check comes through.

"Wir nicht mochten nach Leipzig fahren"

Nintendo have announced (if you have not guessed from my terribly poor German) that they are not going to the Leipzig Games Convention 2008. They have said they want to concentrate on smaller shows over the country, rather than one main event. I believe that they want to reach as many people as possible, increasing their grasp on the casual gaming market. This seems to be following in the trend of the abandonment of the main big shows such as E3 and Leipzig and changing to smaller more concentrated events run by the publishers or developers. Meh, I can't afford go to any of them anyway!

Get back to your gaming caves

Us gamers have been called a variety of things this week, and now the the pinnacle of British hysteria, The Daily Mail, claims gaming turns male gamers into cavemen. They claim that when we pick up a games console, we turn into primordial numpty's...I'm thinking they mean console pad as picking up a PS3 or two is likely give even the most able bodied gamer a hernia. They say that research shows that gaming activates a part of the males brain used back in the day we were hunting mammoths etc. It showed that both males and females had some activation in this area when playing games but more so in the males, probably explaining the birth of the 'Man-child'.

Other bits of stuff

First Aid

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has admitted that during the mess up of the PS3's launch, it was not looking promising, and almost going to bring down the company, the PS3 was basically on 'Life Support'. But now, apparently, its all going fine, especially after HD-DVD losing the war. But, does that mean that people are just buying it as a cheap Blu-ray player, not a game console?

Afrika ain't in Europe

Sony's safari simulator is not going to be published in Europe. The game, which looked similar to the N64's 'Pokemon Snap' (well, I don't think it involved shooting the animals), looked more like a tech demo than anything else, but we'll see.

Secretive Xbox games due to be unveiled

News just in, apparently Microsoft are going to unveil 2 big new Xbox games at this years E3, probably during the pre-show conference. It's just as well, as judging by the recent activities over at E3 with developers deciding not to show up, these may be the major draw.

There's a ton more news floating around the internet, but go and find it if you want to know.