6 posts tagged “gaming”

Like all good stories mine starts off happy, turns sad, gets happier and points towards a brighter future.  Like all good stories turned into Hollywood movies my story is also overly-dramatic and probably not worth watching, but watch anyway - you always do. 

I pre-ordered my Wii back months ago, from the moment the new controller was unveiled I knew I had to have one.  When it got closer to launch day I booked the day off of work and confirmed with Gamestation that my order would be fulfilled, it would - all things set for happiness.  Unfortunately something came up at work so I had to work on Friday but I still collected it at midnight and played Wii Sports for about an hour.  Then, that weekend and the following week I was working / sleeping / Christmas shopping / socialising and didn't really get the chance to play it (see this is the sad bit).  This weekend just gone though, I got to play a little Red Steel, a little Zelda and a bit of Wii Sports and some Virtual Console games and I'm very pleased with the outcome.  In brief... 

Wii Sports
Very fun, quite tiring but pretty hilarious in two-player.  My flatmate (a girl) an I played it for a while and the split screen mode is great fun, we got a few volleys going in Tennis and once you get the hang of it you can really control what's going on. 

Red Steel
It's OK, because it's not cartooney the low-res graphics on the Wii really show themselves up and I did for a few seconds think "what have I done?", but I persevered and, well - it's OK.  I've not got to the sword-fighting bit yet but I do like the novelties, such as that to reload you just shake the Nun-Chuk downwards and to open a door you shake it upwards.  Overall though it didn't feel that responsive and the general sentiment of 6/10 - 7/10 is pretty justified. 

Zelda Twilight Princess
My name is thirtyfootscrew, and I have never played a Zelda game before.  Phew, that was hard to admit but now I've done it I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  It's also a lie because now I have played Twilight Princess (though it really is the first Zelda I've ever played) and it seems quite good.  I won't judge the game on half-an-hour's play as it's not fair for such a big game but first impressions are good, I shall report back sometime in the future. 

Virtual Console
I like it, though I have no real concept of what these Wii points are worth so I can't comment on the value for money - I just went on a mini-spending spree.  I loved playing Golden Axe and Columns, Mario Bros is rubbish (remember - this isn't Super Mario Bros) and I've not really played Mario 64 enough to comment.  The system all in all is easy to use though no better ordered than Xbox Live Arcade so will be a nightmare when it has lots of content, even though I don't have kids I was pleased that it has ratings info for each game as it'll help parents (something I think is good for the industry even though I'm generally anti-censorship). 

General 'ness'
I love it, I think it's fantastic - tonight I was more excited than I have been in years about a console - I came home and it was glowing blue.  I opened up the Wii Menu (basically the Wii's OS) and found that I'd received a message from Nintendo telling me that the Forecast Channel was available.  I downloaded the update and launched the channel, a brief setup tells it where you live (or nearest large town) and got stuck in, at a basic level it gives you current, 6-hour, next day and 5-day weather forecasts which seems like all you'd need.  Of course, Nintendo didn't stop there - you can zoom in and out, check other towns in the country by 'grabbing' the earth (zoom out enough and it is a globe), or towns in other countries. 

I spent about half an hour checking weather in places like Cape Town, Baghdad, Sidney, Sri-Lanka, New York - it was great.  I know this sounds trivial but the user-experience of just 'grabbing' the world and shifting it around really made me see what could be possible with the Wii - I believe that this is the first mass-market step in a new model of human-computer interaction and it really works.  I have friends who would never consider playing on the Xbox 360 that say "that sounds fun, I'll have to come round and try it", my female (non-gaming) flat-mate bought herself a controller and spent an hour playing Wii Sports with one of her female non-gaming friends.  Stuff like that just doesn't happen, at least it didn't used to - things are changing. 

The one last thing I like is that whatever you're doing it always plays soothing music to you and makes nice comforting noises when you click on things, it reminds me of the Heart of Gold from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - except less irritating, I think that might might make both Xbox360 and PS3 the Paranoid Androids. 

MicroSony 0 - 1 Nintendo
An away win is always so much sweeter. 

Well, I'm jumping the gun a little bit but I think it's near enough and I need a decent topic to post about because it's been bloody ages since my last post!  About a year ago I was waiting in line at my local Gamestation having been one of the lucky few to get a preorder, that said I got my preorder in August by asking in store every few days for ages so it's a mix of luck and persistence.  Now I think it's time to take a good look at how thing have turned out.

The Console (8/10)
When I got the thing back I was pleased to find the console to be a bit smaller than the old Xbox but horrified to see the bus-sized power brick that comes in the box, I setup the unit quickly and easily then migrated my Live account and off I was - nice and simple.  I've heard plenty of people bitching and moaning about their boxes overheating and the console freezing, I have never had this and would be 95% sure that most of these cases are down to bad placement, poor ventilation, general stupidity, etc.

The Accessories (8/10)
I love the wireless pad, it's the first time I've seen a decent responsive wireless controller and I just love the feel and everything about it and the absence of wires is great.  I have used a wired pad and would generally recommend against using it, not because of the cable (I've been used to that for years), but because the battery in the wireless version gives it an extra bit of weight which makes it feel just right.  

As I bought a premium unit on launch day I received a free IR remote control (not as big as the one available in retail), I use this thing all the time - not only does it save batteries, it's just much more pleasurable to use if you're hopping around the dashboard.  Other accessories I have bought include a play & charge kit (useful but not essential) and the camera (useless but entertaining).  

The Operating System (9/10)
To me, this is probably the single best feature of the Xbox 360 - Microsoft's decision to bring music, chat, messaging, gamercards, settings, etc. into the OS rather than have it handled by games developers was truly inspired.  I know this will make me sound like a fanboy but I believe that MS truly led the way with this and I am regularly amazed at the consequences (cross game invites, cross-game chat, achievements, games invoking the guide for gamercards, etc).  

The dashboard though is a bit clunky and sometimes a pig to navigate but the ability to stream music and video and pictures from a PC (or CD/USB), iPod support, etc. make up for it's mildy frustrating interface.  

The Software (4/10)
Well, what can I say?  Most of the games released to date have been disappointing re-hashed crap with shiny textures added in to make them look 'next gen'.  I'm quite bitter about this as I've spend a lot of my hard-earned cash to find games are to short or too samey or just plain rubbish (PDZ).  The best games I've played are GRAW (truly brilliant), Oblivion (very pretty and a fantastic game but short-lived by Morrowind standards) and PGR3 (though it's about a third the size of PGR2 and rubbish online).  I am wholeheartedly (but cynically) looking forward to Gears of War (have done ACT1 but can't comment properly yet), Rainbow Six Vegas and Grand Theft Auto 4 (due next October) but everything else I'm pretty nonplussed about.  

I am totally fed up of game developers/publishers churning out the same old rubbish over and over again and people keep buying it, I think that in this uber-corporate modern age games are tailored too much for the mass-market whilst niche games or innovative games fall by the wayside and never get anywhere.  Perhaps it's slightly unfair to bring this rant up on the birthday of the Xbox 360 as this problem affects the whole industry - the only company I see trying to do anything about it is Nintendo.  The DS succeeded in putting fun back into the handheld gaming market and has crushed the PSP by doing so, the Wii furthers that model and I truly hope it succeeds because if it doesn't - it'll be bad for all of us.  

XBox Live (7/10)
Marketplace is brilliant, the Red vs Blue guys made fun out of it but sometimes I do just pop on to the box, browse some Marketplace content (demos, trailers) then maybe do some chatting without playing a game.  I would say that even after the recent reorganisation it's still hard to find what you want sometimes, it could definitely be done better.  My other major concern is that we're being slowly bled dry by marketing execs selling small amounts of content for medium amounts of money. 

As for actually playing games over Live, I rarely play with anyone other than my existing friends - I'm not quite sure why or whether it's the fault of the 360 but I just don't like playing against strangers now.  I could probably trace this malaise back to Halo 2 being full of trash-talking tossers, but remember PGR2 had a good community of clean racers and friendly people - the 360 brought us PGR3 which was full of dickheads trying to run you off the road.  Something's not right, but I don't know what it is.  

I also haven't seen much innovation in terms of how games are played online, the same old game modes are churned out by developers with no real 'next gen' thinking (I sound like a journo now, what a twat).

Xbox Live Arcade (9/10)
Absolutely totally brilliant, with disappointing games costing £50 it's refreshing to be able to buy some great games (Marble Blast, Wik, Cloning Clyde, Doom) for a few quid and get a real sense of pleasure out of them.  Sure, there have been some turkeys (SF2 being the worst) and I don't know why retro titles are laggy over Live when something like GRAW isn't but all in all I love Live Arcade.  You also have the chance to play trials of every title and on the few occasions I have been burned it have been because I didn't play the trial version first (aka my own stupid fault).  I would say that there ought to be more original content on there rather than so much retro stuff but that takes time so maybe the next year will bring some great titles.  

The Community (8/10)
A few years ago who would have thought that one of the world's biggest corporations with monopolies in several major markets would actually listen to it's customers?  I certainly wouldn't but I have been proved wrong and I am glad to have been so.  Microsoft have been great at communicating with Xbox customers using a whole range of multimedia outlets, from the forums on Xbox.com, the blog and podcast from Major Nelson to the little things like holding community days for both major and independent websites.  On top of that with E3 and X06 they put hours of content up on Xbox Live market place so that we could share the previews and demos that normally only journalists get to see.  

Conclusion & The Future
In all I think it's a great system but I feel let down by the lack of decent games being released, this at least is something that can be fixed and launch games are rarely the best so I feel able excuse that in my mind.  I am still glad that I bought the system and will cynically look forward the coming year!

This next year will be critical for the 360, for the first time there is competition in the market and PS3 will sell regardless of Sony's inept PR and arrogant ways - the Sony fanboy may well still be king.  What I really hope is that the upcoming/recent games (Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, Medal of Honour Airbourne, Call of Duty 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, Halo 3, etc.) will truly make this console worth owning.  If this happens then MS have a good chance to hit Sony where it hurts, if Sony tie or even lose this round then some of the arrogance will fade and we'll have a truly competitive market - which is always good for the consumer.  

One upcoming development is the imminent release of the XNA Games Studio, for those of you who are unaware this will enable anyone to write their own games on the PC then play them on the 360 as well as distributing them to others via the Internet.  I believe that this has the potential to revolutionise gaming though it will depend very much how content is distributed and how much control Microsoft retain over content and censorship.  Too much control and the service will be full of rubbish games that aren't worth playing, but too little control will result in kids getting hold of adult games and spawn a thousand lawsuits.

Other developments to watch are: MS selling high-definition movies & tv shows over Xbox Live market place, the HD-DVD drive addon (a bargain for the very latest technology), Live Anywhere (messaging, invites and even gaming between Xbox 360 and PCs, Mobile Phones).  

THE END

I logged on to my Xbox 360 earlier today and as usual thought I'd check Marketplace first, I found Phantasy Star Universe under the Demos category so I thought I'd give it a go.  At just under 1GB it took a while to download, but having heard about the Phantasy Star series before and knowing what a cult following they get I thought I'd have to try it.  Whilst it was downloading I went about playing Oblivion and chatting to Private Custard over Xbox Live, once we'd both downloaded it we decided to jump in to the demo and explore the game together. 

Having never tried a MMORPG before I didn't think the demo would last that long, 8 hours later - I realised I was wrong.  The game is pretty accessible, even for a noob like me - the most similar game I've played is probably Final Fantasy VII on the original Playstation.  The controls are easy enough to pick up and the missions I tried mainly consited of bashing-up monsters, though the combat system here is real-time rather than turn-based.  Using real-time combat makes it feel a little like a hack'n'slash as well as an RPG which I prefer as there's no time waiting around for players/monsters to make a move, I understand this might actually put some die-hard RPG fans off but I think it could also bring in some new players who don't usually go for RPGs. 

Being new to MMORPGs I was very pleased with the whole notion of interaction with others, I liked the way that you could collaborate and trade but not fight (as it would always end up in chaos).  Private Custard and I went through a particularly beefy mission which would have caused us some serious gried had it not been for some other players joining our party and sharing the pain we were going through - a great demonstration of how MMOs work. 

One neat feature is that the game allows players to perform certain actions to express emotion as opposed to just using keyboard (or voice if in the same party), these include Waving, Laughing, Crying, Bowing, Jumping and Dancing.  The most fun part of the whole night was the dance-off that we managed to get going in the main lobby - through the night it involved at least 20 people dancing and up to a hundred or so watching.  Personally I think it's a great thing that people from all over the world can get together online and coordinate to achieve something so completely silly - no guns, no arguments, no fighting, not even any bad language - just silliness.  I do however acknowledge that it's more than a little bit sad.

Please see video above or visit page on YouTube.

How new are webcams? Not very - I remember them knocking around at least 8-10 years ago but as soon as this product was announced I knew I was going to buy it, now it's finally arrived and quite frankly I love it. 

For those (unlike me) who don't obsessively follow gaming news I am talking about the Xbox Live Vision Camera, essentially a webcam built specifically for Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console.  As far as I can tell, this is no better or worse than an averagely priced PC webcam, at £34.99 it's not a steal but I think it's worth the price given that you get a free game bundled in as well.  One criticism is that the bundled game has been  around for ages so lots of people have already shelled out for it only to find they could have had it for free, I would have liked to see either a new game or just extra content bundled with the camera. 

The camera enables you to do a few things, firstly having a video-chat with your friends over Xbox Live - this is pretty good and the picture quality is good but I was a little disappointed that you can't be doing other things at the same time (browsing Marketplace, etc).  Another neat feature is that you can now take your picture and use it as your personal 'gamertile' - this is only visible to your friends (to avoid people using their own backside as their avatar) but is pretty cool nonetheless.  My picture at the moment is the logo from Ghostbusters which I took by pointing the camera at a DVD case. 

The game that comes with the camera is UNO and is distributed via Xbox Live Arcade, to get this you must, redeem the code that comes in the pack and download the game as no disk comes in the box.  The game itself is a simple but higly addictive card game and will need no introduction to most people, I didn't know it but had played a very similar game before so picked it up really quickly.  The graphics are simple but always sharp and clear, the controls are intuitive and the game is really a joy to play - it even got my non-gaming cousin interested in playing. 

The video in-game replaces the the part of the screen where your avatar would normally be seen and is quite a fun addition to the gameplay, my friend Private Custard (also see website) and I spent ages just messing around with the camera whilst playing UNO - hilarious but very silly fun! 

Downloaded iTunes 7 last night and I like the new style interface, just seems a little slicker and less clunky - hopefully it'll stop taking 100% of my processor usage at random intervals but I guess that'd be a big ask. 

The biggest and best addition in my eyes is the games, whilst it's not the most awe-inspiring selection in the world I'm kind-of expecting it to grow in time as the current games get more popular.  For now I bought Tetris and Mahjong - both classics to avoid disappointment. 

I've not played Tetris yet but the Mahjong is excellent - exactly how the game ought to be and it's a great way to forget about the fact you can't get a seat on train from London to Peterborough.  Thankfully it's not a long journey and the grubby/bristly floor was bearable whilst I had the distraction. 

As basic puzzle games go, this seemed to be a good example - graphics and sound are both good and the wheel controller seemed to work well (though I'm not sure how well it'd stretch to more complex games).  As a gamer I definitely see this as a positive development, a new channel is always good and sometimes brings a bit of innovation along with it - I hope to see some innovative uses of the wheel in future games. 

For me this was quite a big news item, I got into the DreamStation.cc Video Game Show podcast earlier in the year and have been an avid listener since.  The podcast basically covers news, opinion and humour from the world of videogaming and was very well produced/edited compared to many other podcasts - basically think TWiT for gamers.  

Well, now the host of the show Chris Paladino has secured a job working for Microsoft's gaming community site Gamerscore Blog working in the community - a dream come true more-or-less.  The rest of the crew have created a new podcasting network Gamercast Network to bring together a range of independent gaming podcasts, this could be good for gamers in general so watch this space. 

As for DreamStation.cc, they're continuing to podcast and will grow into their own style once more, I will definitely keep on listening and using the forums, if you've never tried I reccommend you have a look.