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. 

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.

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

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.

Is what you read what you get?

I recently read quite an interesting column over at Edge(or Next Gen). Games journalist N'Gai Croal wrote about how previewers of games often fill in the gaps of what they think will be in the final version. Many of them often have to try and be as positive as possible, even if the game has a very low standard and is basically unplayable, journalists are told by their managers to ensure they get a review or another preview copy, hence be positive. But is that really giving readers an insight into the game, or simply buying into the hype machine.

Look at Haze. Yeah, the shoddy unpolished graphics may hurt your eyes and crude AI may drive you insane, but none of this was mentioned in the preview versions. From that, it was going to be the perfect game, and having seen videos and articles about it, I believed it would be a good game. Nevermind then. So which would readers prefer, to be told a game ain't looking good before hand during a preview or to be told that the game is going to turn out fine.

For this blog, obviously as we ain't  journalist's or anything near it, I don't see preview copies, or review copies, or most of the time, any copies. My personal process of writing about games, if previewing them for example, is to attempt to gather as much information as possible from the largest variety of websites I can, read through it, look a videos etc and try and build up a image of what the game is like, hence why I refuse to attempt to 'review' a game. It's therefore difficult for me to actually contextualise and look objectively at games, but many blogs are now starting to be given preview builds of games, leading them to simply say what they see.

Honesty appears to be a an important aspect of the gaming community, one which is failing fast. So many games are now being hyped up to be better than they are, (Matt recently blogged about one such situation) then it has a knock on effect on the industry as a whole. It's becoming the trend for developers to have journalists to play through games in the developers HQ, so they can give feedback on the good and bad parts of it. This doesn't seem to be happening in the previews, which means some developers do not bother making changes to the game or upping the standard as the previewers seem to believe 'It's all fine'.

So should the process be changed. As mentioned earlier, yes. Previewers all do a good job, they allow fans of a series to gain the next bit of knowledge, allow readers to generally get a interest in the games, but overall being forced to bow down to the more corporate side of the industry. I listened to a podcast a while back, where some journalists were talking about how they were not being given games by a well known publisher simply for writing some less than complementary comments about their new release. With attitudes like that with some developers, it's understandable when previewers 'play nice'.

More addictive than cigarettes and wine gums...

Casual gaming is a funny old thing. In fact its got to the point where it don't feel right calling it such, what with it being spread as far as McDonalds across the world. Everyone and their gran have had some experience on these games. Some are simply cheap and cheerful flash games, whilst others are quite large projects, developed by a small team for a large publisher.

Some of these find their way onto the Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Store, whilst many are just found scattered around the internet in various shapes and sizes. the biggest developer of these casual games is 'PopCap' who either make new, sleeker versions of online puzzle games or take some idea dreamed up after a pretty crazy party and add it into a game.

The reason I've brought these games up is because I spent all morning playing Peggle, again. I got attached to Peggle (for lack of a better term) earlier this year after downloading a free version based on Half Life (free for nVidia graphics card owners off Steam).After playing through that, I played a online trial version, then had to get the full 'Peggle Deluxe' and complete that.

What it is about it, I don't know. Is it that the sound effects trigger something in your mind that goes 'Must...play...more', the same way a slot machine makes you put some more money in. I mean, what makes me keep playing a game (for those unaffected) bounce a little ball of multicoloured pegs, attempting to get all the orange ones and the highest score. It has no real achievement once you get to the end, you get a little trophy and then you go and do ridiculous challenges that will drive you to the edge of insanity.

You know you've played any game too long when you're reading the paper and begin to imagine bouncing a ball off the print. Now i obviously understand why Jack Thompson believes GTA is responsible for crimes, he's played Peggle. Popcap offer a variety of other games some more intelligent and mind bending than others, from Bejeweled 2 to Bookworm.

Peggle is also being developed for the DS, which should prove great on bus jouney's with the constant binging and bonging. It's also avaliable on iPod, as well as many other games, which explains what Popcap are trying to do. Once we are surrounded by their addictive casual games, we will have no need for other consoles, for any other games. PC's will become know as 'PopCap Portals' where we download games directly into our mind. Those crazy little critter characters in Peggle are there for a reason, who would refuse to do what 'Jimmy Lightning', a chipmunk who says 'Toasty!' alot, if he asked u to take over the world....

Looks like they already have one person....

The Big Summer Drought

Nope, we ain't all of a sudden running out of water, but this is traditionally the period of the year where very few big games are released. Developers seem to be believe (something the tabloids seriously don't) that during summer, everyone runs outside and indulges in polite games of cricket etc etc.

This is a load of rubbish obviously, we're all obese, unhealthy slobs and would much prefer to spend our days becoming pale and potato shaped. Summers generally turn into a world of mediocre releases, seemingly made in the developers spare time, or ports of older games onto a different system. Many of these being rushed and lazily put together.

It seems that the only games which are released around this period are those which have been delayed from the congested Christmas period (just think about how crowded it would of been with both MGS4 and GTAIV being released then). I found that last year, there were not too many games, but too many for me too afford and play. I found I could not devote enough time to every game. I enjoyed Assassins Creed, until it dissolved into a guide of how to repeat the same action 14 times, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was fun, but linear and a tad frustrating at times, COD 4 was well...COD4 basically and Ratchet and Clank: Tools Of Destruction, was a fun blast.

But that still left quite a few games for me to play, hence me having to rush buy about 4 games after Christmas. I would prefer games to be spread out a lot more over the year, as they ain't cheap, especially in the UK. It's slightly better this year, with MGS4 just round the corner and it doesn't seem quite so congested. At least we get to look forward to a summer of confrences including another version of E3, which will eventually end up just like the old one anyway!

Anyway, as a more personal message, my fellow blogger is vanishing on holiday this week, so I can't guarantee that content will be put online as regular as we would like, on that note, anybody who feels they fit the role we outlined in the first post, contact me as soon as possible for a chance to be part of The Next Level Team.

Really a revolution?

Having followed the Civilization series since its second game quite a few years back, I've often wondered if they could ever bring it to consoles. Sure, I prefer playing RTS games on PC's, but seeing as for the most part these 'Next gen' machines operate like computers (see the 20 mins install times for PS3 Lost Planet and DMC4), shouldn't the process of adapting a game to work on a set lot of hardware be easier than the variety that is afforded to PCs.

For those not familiar to the Civ series, you pick a civilization and a leader (in this installment). You then attempt to spread your cities, influence and military might, if you want to, over the randomly generated content, researching nation wide technologies and city based buildings and units. The main fun part of the game comes from the strategy from interacting with other Civs, who may attempt to be your ally, or threatening you into violence.

Previously, many console based RTS games have been forgettable. The 360 has recently seen a influx of such games, although nearly all have been the poor, inbred, stunted half cousin of the PC counterparts. More and more aspects of PC gaming are now moving over to consoles, with mouse support in games (such as UT3 for the PS3) and hard drive based installs.

So can the console version (which is also coming out on DS) of Civ IV, Civilization Revolution, really give the kick up the backside console based RTS games need. First, the DS version. Now the main limit with the DS is the memory required to load it all and the screen space. Now C:R attempts to pull the same tricks the Age Of Empires game did by stripping out a lot of the details of the game, but attempting to keep as much of the substance as possible.

The game itself controls itself a lot more, leading to far less micromanagement. For example, citizens automatically exploit resources such as farms and mines, and cities require far less looking after. However, the game still requires a keen tactical mind, as although the games are shorter (with your varying options of winning from world domination to cultural er..domination still intact), the CPU still attempts some cunning tricks. The touchscreen uses some point and drag systems, making it easier to control for those used to PC's.

The 360 and PS3 versions are as you expect, much more lavish on the graphical side of things. The characters are big and cartoonish and this is also mirrored in the overall environment presentation, which has very vivid colours and smooth animations. The game plays very similar to that of the PC versions, with you researching technologies through day one of your civ to the space age, but one main criticism at the moment was the lack of on screen text at various points. This is not too much of issue, but it may hinder various decisions as details are skimmed over.

Controls have been adapted to allow easy movement between cities, but getting around the world map seems sluggish at the moment, with no easy to navigate mini-map. Why they haven't put a keyboard input for the PS3 version I don't know, but hopefully Fireaxis may be persuaded to if they take a glance over some forums

Overall, it looks like Sid Meiers Civilisation: Revolution could be a console hit, hooking many console fans with its addictive, time sucking gameplay. The game is set for release on 360, PS3 and DS this June, but if you can't wait for that to play a civ game, Civilization 4 on the PC comes highly recommended.

The Next Level Update- 10/5/08!

As we begin to work out exactly what and how often little things will appear on this blog, here's a round up of things that happened in the past week which caught our attention:

Not Quite Phil

So, Playstation day happened, at the O2 arena, with President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, David Reeves, being the main presenter. After being used to the bald tall guy Phil Harrison, for however many years, Reeves comes across as a slightly less enthusiastic speaker and presenter. Not sure why, but Phil always seemed to show a massive enthusiasm for games, whether he believed in them or not. But as hes scooted off to Atari, Kaz 'Riiiidddgeee Racer' Hirai and Reeves have become primary speakers for these events. Playable games included Killzone 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, but many of the games, minus LittleBigPlanet (which still looks awesome) are all sequels. Lets hope they can improve massively on their predecessors, as Killzones textures were the most boring in existence on the ps2, and motorstorm's mud got a little tiring after a while.

Banjo's finally coming back

After Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, makers of popular N64 titles such as Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye, their titles have been a bit thin on the ground. Now apparently next week, we will get the chance to see properly for the first time 'Banjo Kazooie 3' at Microsoft's San Francisco media summit on Tuesday.







COD5 not going back to the 1940's

After it was revealed that Treyarch would be taking control of the Call Of Duty series after Infinity Wards brilliant 2007 released COD4: Modern Warfare, rumours on the internet have been going around saying that it would be going back to old World War 2. Obviously, this displeased many fans, who believed the modern day setting had given the COD series as massive boost over its rivals. Now, Activision CEO Mike Griffith has revealed that it will take place in 'A new theatre of war'. No one is quite sure what yet, but according to Gamespot, Griffith said that '...[COD4] significantly increased our user base, and we want to engage those users who enjoyed the modern setting. Also revealed that the new James Bond game, being produced by Treyarch, will use the COD4 engine, meaning it could be a new classic.


And Finally...

Saturday morning saw the release of a new Gears of War 2 trailer, with a 'personal introduction' from the big man himself, Epic games design director, Ciffy B, GOW 2 promise to be '...more badass' than the last instalment. According to Microsoft, features of the trailer will include chainsaw duels and a look at the 'stunning new visuals'. More details should be unveiled at MS's media summit next week.