A bit more God of War

Hello, yes I’ve been busy working on TGFC (see links) but I stumbled upon some new GoW2 footage and thought I’d link to it here. Looks like some pretty impressive stuff for the humble PS2.

Bring it on!

Re-hacked

TEMPORARY POST

Another week, another hack. Gee, somebody really doesn’t like me expressing an opinion!

So, this time the databases disappeared – taking the entire site content with them. Backups save the day (thanks, once again, to my awesome host) and only a week’s worth of content was lost. This will be recovered.

In the meantime, not a lot of visible activity will be going on here.

Hackers eh? Why can’t they just settle down and meet a nice girl? 🙂

Will Wright pimps his games

This Colbert guy is meant to be some hard-nosed, cutting-wit interviewer guy. I reckon Paxman would eat him for breakfast. Will looks worried. I don’t know if it’s the fear of being interviewed live on TV by some wannabe politico or the thought that every word he says is being scrutinised by his paymasters at EA.

For the record, I reckon Spore will be a bit meh. Nice idea but, like all creation games, once you’ve gone through all the tiers of creation it’ll grow old fast. Not fast enough to sell like crazy though.

Eight Point Eight

So, as the mad rush rush to be the first with THAT Zelda review dies down so does the hysteria. Let’s face it, Nintendo zealots are a predictable bunch. They already know that the unproven, unreleased Wii is The Second Coming (because Nintendo says so). They already know that the unreleased, unplayed Zelda game is The Greatest Game Ever because it’s the new Zelda game!

You know what? They’re prejudiced children.

This is highlighted by the fact that Gamespot (A site I freely admit to having a fondness to and for paying a yearly subscription to) has finally put out their Zelda review. Looks like they weren’t rushing to get those important web-hits by being the first to praise the game.

The reception to this ‘terrible’ review has been savage. The prejudiced fans have practically put a fatwah on the reviewer’s head and started to throw tantrums using words like “boycott” and calling the reviewer “fat” and a “hater”.

People don’t like to hear news that doesn’t fit in with their ideas. Nintendo zealots are the masters of this behaviour – instantly branding any critic of their dream an idiot/hater or someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Even if he’s a professional reviewer, an award-winning game developer or someone who’s been involved in games development longer than Nintendo have been producing consoles.

I knew this would happen.

I have said for years (and in previous koffdrop.com posts) that Zelda is nice but it’s not amazing. The formula is getting old and, more significantly, games of a similar ilk are surpassing Zelda’s block-pushing antics by a considerable margin. Clover’s PS2 swansong Okami immediately springs to mind.

Nintendo fans have enjoyed telling people it’s all about the gameplay – yet now there’s a new Zelda game that equates to little other than the same game as before but with shinier graphics and, crucially, with gameplay that’s been described as ‘aged’ instead of ‘classic’ the knives are drawn.

Some games news sites have this ‘terrible news’ on their front page as a news item. I think that says a lot about where the collective culture’s mindset is at. The fact that a game scoring lower than people’s pre-judged expectations is becoming news? It seems common that when people have expectations of something, when those expectations are not met the immature thing is to blame anything other then those expectations.

I don’t have the need for webhits. That’s because I don’t have adverts on my site and a need to bring people here by posting news they want to hear. That’s why I don’t need to spin any news. This culture shows itself up for the immature sham that it is and incidents like the reception to this Zelda review prove my point perfectly. I will probably buy Twighlight Princess as I bought WindWaker. I will play it as a game first and as a Nintendo Zelda game … never. What’s the point? That’s just being led by the hand by marketing men.

I prefer to think for myself. It would seem like that is a revolution in this culture.

The Gamespot Zelda review.

Panthers V Steelers

I’m not an Ice Hockey fan – in fact, there’s few sports that spark my interest. However, my employer had kindly organised a trip to a big game and myself and the good lady wife enjoyed some exciting sportsmanship, the odd scrap and some free booze.

For those interested, the result was a 2-2 draw.

I have to admire the attitude of my employers. In my first week I was on a trip to Alton Towers, they’ve organised bowling trips, tonight’s hockey game and then there’s the Christamas do (whatever that my turn out to be) looming – not to mention last week’s fun Gong of Terror and other Game City events. All have been great fun and just make me happier knowing that not only am I doing a job I enjoy with a firm who has a reputation for quality – but they’re also good at looking after their staff!What a difference from 8 months ago!In other news, my US copy of Final Fantasy XII turned up ONE DAY after the US street date. Got to admire that! EB must have shipped it one day early and UPS did the rest of the work. OK, I got stung for £20 of import tax but that’s the first time it’s ever happened to me and, strictly speaking, I can’t complain.

I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it. It’s a shame that I’ve not managed to find the time to stick the damn disc in my PS2 yet!

GameCity

Allow me to direct you to Nottingham’s GameCity event. As the name suggests, there are various gaming seminars, tournaments, lectures and gatherings being held RIGHT NOW across the city center.

Being based in Nottingham, Free Radical are involved in a few events. I’ll be attending the Free Radical Gong of Terror that kicks off tonight. The event is a sort of talent show where hopefuls pitch game ideas to a panel of judges. There will a gong. Terror is optional. The prize? Well, it’s something money simply can’t buy!

You can find out more about precisely what events Free Radical are involved in by checking their web page here.

If you’re near Nottingham (or even if you’re not!) you should pay the GameCity event a visit. Maybe I’ll see you there!

HD

I take my gaming fairly seriously – and with good reason.

My home currently has two televisions, one in the front room which is connected to the Sky box (soon to be replaced with the Topfield PVR) and one in the back room which is totally dedicated to gaming. Both are 28″ CRT models using SCART for their input.

As my desire for next-gen consoles begins to grow serious I’ve realised that I’m going to sulk if I don’t play games in HD. I freely admit that it’s not just about the image quality. I know that if I were to be playing a X360 or PS3 on a regular TV I’d be sitting around thinking “I know this would look better if I had an HD TV” – subsequently, I’d be spoiling my own enjoyment by focusing on what I don’t have rather than what I do.

Now, of course, that’s all in my head – but that’s the way I am. I’m not sure if that makes me some sort of HD sucker or someone who’s fallen for PR. I just know that I want to get the best out of whatever box I connect to a TV.

So I’ve decided to hold off buying any new consoles (including the Wii) until I upgrade my TV. Speaking to my best friend at length and walking around a few retailers I’ve decided to plump for a 37″ LCD HD model. Specifically the Toshiba 37LW66. It fits to a budget of around £800 (if you shop around online) and also 37″ is about the biggest screen I think I can put into that room in any practical form. I’m still quite happy with 28″ of CRT so anything larger than that will be fine. In fact, having viewed the TV in-store it looked surprisingly big to me and my wife. And, as we all know, things always look bigger at home than they do in the store.

The model seems to have been well established and garnered positive reviews all round. My space concerns are more to do with width than anything else so the design of the TV is appealing. Speakers placed somewhere other than the sides of the screen mean the unit isn’t any wider than it needs to be.

Being the tight-fisted git that I am, I’m refusing to buy the beastie until I’ve got the cash in place for it. I really hate buying stuff on credit and try to be a cash-only guy. With the holiday season fast approaching and all the strain that puts on one’s finances I think it’ll be 2007 before I see it in my home. Not long into 2007 though!

The next step is to grab component cables and a component switcher for my consoles to that I can take immediate advantage of the screen quality with my existing machines.

So, if anyone wants to know what I want for Christmas, there’s your answer!

Castlevania – Preorder or regret it

Those few of us that bought the PAL PlayStation game Castlevania – Symphony of the Night will recall with some smugness that the package contained an audio CD and artbook. A pretty good deal and one that fetches a fair price on ebay.

Well, look lively, because the second Nintendo DS Castlevania game (Portrait of Ruin) has a pretty spiffy pre-order incentive in the US:

Order Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS and receive a Castlevania 25th Anniversary Gift Pack FREE! Gift Pack includes a Soundtrack CD, DS Stylus, DS Game case that holds 2 games and a Castlevania art book! Offer good while supplies last.

Now, that’s pretty nice!

I’m only aware of it being on offer at EBGames / Gamestop sites in the US. The EB product page is here. The price is $39.99 plus $15.99 international shipping which when you feed it into a currency converter comes out to a reasonable £29.73. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the UK retail price of the standard game be £29.99 when it eventually comes out over here – so it’s a no brainer for people like me! US street date is 5th December.

The game itself looks extremely good – and sure to please fans of the Castlevania series.

I’ve ordered from EB online only once before and that’s for the Final Fantasy XII Special Edition (poncy box). For some reason it took a number of times for the site to accept my details but I got there in the end. Seeing as neither of the games I’ve ordered are out yet I can’t comment on the delivery service or speed. If any readers of this site have any experience of them be sure to let me know what you think!

Looking forward to..

It’s been an awfully long time since my last post, I know. I’ve been rather pre-occupied with work and playing games.

That season is upon us, once again, where far too many good games appear that could either be reasonably afforded or have the time to play. And I’m writing this as a guy who doesn’t have any next-gen hardware.

I’ve had a bit of a binge on Ouendan on the DS to the point where I really have to put it down to give my wrists a rest and to lower the risk of creating horrific scratches on the touchscreen. I’ve beaten the third diffiulty setting and now have the fourth to tackle. I tried a couple of songs, got my ass handed to me, swore a bit and decided to play some Fire Emblem instead.

I’m keeping my eye out for Contact as it looks interesting. I found the developer’s last game, Killer 7, to be totally overrated pap that was so focussed on being special, obscure and different they forgot to bother with adding anything resembling decent gameplay. Gaming elitists love to champion the game as something ‘very special’ and tell you that, if you don’t like it you don’t understand it. Nah, I don’t like it because it was no fun. Rez is misunderstood – but it’s fun from the getgo. So is Panzer Dragoon. And let’s not get started on Beyond Good and Evil.

So, yeah, Contact. Looks intriguing, hope it’s not a bore-fest.

Coming not a million miles away from the people that brought you Killer 7 is the game I’ve probably spent most of my recent time with: Okami. It’s the one with the wolf from those Clover chaps that just go shut down (I’m still not clear if they jumped or if they were pushed but it’s a moot point). Cracking game, very satisfying, very pretty and has a novel mechanic in the form of the Celestial Paintbrush. This has echoes of the special powers in Viewtiful Joe that can aid the character in battle and in environmental puzzles. I’m about 60 hours into the game (a good 25+ of those are from leaving the game on PAUSE) and getting to that ‘looking forward to it being over’ stage. It’s great and all, I’ve probably just binged on it too much.

Final Fantasy 12 looms (US release on the 31st) and, from what I’ve played of it, I’m very impressed. Technical excellence and many interesting gameplay changes that make the game feel more immersive.

Before that is Rockstar’s Bully which, if you’re a thoughtless and lazy reviewer is “GTA in a school” but, if comparisons must be made, owes far more to the ZX Spectrum games Skool Daze and Back To Skool. You can argue that these 80’s era 48k games featured a style of sandbox gameplay that is now synonymous with GTA. Either way, Bully is appearing in stores around the world and, of course, being followed by a rabid Jack Thompson. Some UK stores are already claiming they won’t stock the game and that’s up to them. Rockstar get the publicity and, by the looks of things, the game has second guessed all of the moral majority and shown who the REAL bullies are. Politics aside, the game’s meant to be pretty good!

My other been-waiting-all-year-for-it game, Level 5’s Rogue Galaxy, has now been delayed until January 2007 but promises extra polish (to what looked like a very polished product anyway) in the US version. I’ll be importing that baby the moment I find a decent price.

I’ve decided that, before I get any new console hardware, I’ll get me an HD TV. If I bought a 360 and started playing it today on my current screen I just know I’ll be spending most of my time wondering how much nice it might look in HD. So sod it. Stick with my existing range of consoles and get the new screen first. My A/V minded friend assures me that a 37″ LCD TFT is what I’ll be after at some time 2007. Sounds good to me. Hell, it’s not like I’m going to run out of current games any time soon!

Movie wise, I’ve got my sights set on the new Bond movie Casino Royale. I’ve totally up for this and, since watching Layer Cake, realised Daniel Craig is well worth seeing movies for. I was delighted to see him secure the Bond role and am confident he’ll do it justice. The trailers I’ve seen of the film so far are very promising. Roll on November 17th! After that I guess The Prestige is next highest on my list. Hugh Jackman I can take or leave but Christian Bale is a seal of quality. Directed by Chris Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) and set in the world of magic and conjuring this looks THE BIZ. Some time back I bought a novel based soley on it’s cover (yes, judging a book by it’s cover!) and it was brilliant. The book was called Carter Beats The Devil and was the story of a turn-of-the-century vaudville magician getting caught up in rather large government plot. I guess Paul Daniels meets John Grisham is a blunt way of describing it. I loved the book (and so do others that I’ve recommended it to) and it’s made me very receptive to magician/thriller plots which is a term that The Prestige seems to be suited to.

And that’s that.

Further thoughts on the DS

This is my third (1, 2) post on my experiences with the Nintendo DS Lite. Since my initial purchase I’ve replaced the machine once due to dead pixels and also swapped a game (Metroid Prime Hunters) due to its uncomfortable control layout and weight of the DS Lite.

Like my GBA, I bought a DS late and with full intention of getting a flash card solution for it. If you’re not aware, a flash-card is basically a big, fat empty cartridge that you can load games onto via your pc. The GBA ones were pretty straightforward. The DS ones took quite a while to come about and are a little more complex. The one I got in July comprises of three parts and totals 2 gigabyte (yes, that’s 2000 megabytes – not bits) of storage. I’m pretty jazzed about that – that’s an insane amount of storage space for a handheld console whose games tend to weigh in at 32 and 64 megabytes.

Of course, you can do other, more noble things with these devices, such as treat them like a PDA, run homebrew applications (including emulators), play MP3s or watch video on them. Me? I’m all about the games.

So, to get the games I’ve been grabbing releases from good ol’ usenet and have all the releases (about 540 or so right now).

One thing that becomes apparent when you see the entire release list of games for the DS is just how much shit is out there. Sure, there’s the games that reek of innovaton but, by god, there’s so much shitty soduku, karting, or just lame licenced bollocks out there that I see very little in terms of what makes the DS a more ‘worthy’ platform for adulation than any other market leader. Like the PS2, PS1, SNES, GBA – the leading machines suffer from their own success and have a large amount of derivative and unimaginative copycat or licenced crap out there. The DS is absolutely no exception to this. I’m in the (un)eviable position to be able to play every DS game out there and, to be honest, I’m going to just ignore 95% of the stuff. If you want to see what I see then check out sites like gbatemp.net who have release information and feedback on game releases for the DS.

I’ve already commented on games like Tetris, Brain Training and Metroid Prime Hunters in my other posts. Here’s a short list of what I *have* been enjoying on the DS

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

This is, without question, the DS’s killer-app. Demonstrating superb use of both screens and stunning execution of gameplay via the touch-screen. The tactile nature of the gameplay allows anyone to enjoy a stronger sense of connection with this game.

It’s one of the only games I can think of in recent memory that put a massive smile on my face!

The game is simply designed but brilliantly executed – a rhythm action game where you tap or slide on the touch-screen as numbered symbols appear. Doing so results in percusive cymbal sound effect and a sense of making music.

The game also succeeds due to the wonderfully playful nature of its visuals and contrived narrative. The stern trio of characters are, it would seem, the local neighbourhood’s answer to every dilema – spurring each story’s central character to success by means of cheerleeding. Once again, the enonmic yet vibrant style of iconic japanese manga art conveys each story in clear, whimsical fashion that easily surpasses the language barrier. In fact, it’s probably more charming if you don’t understand Japanese.

Crucially, the music tracks are the real stars of the game. Wonderfully uplifting j-pop goodness that sound good through the DS’s speaks and absolutely brilliant through some headphones. The up-beat melodies fit with the cheerful yet striking visuals and compel you to continually retry challenges as much to enjoy the full tune as to know you’ve made progress in the game.

I’ve worked my way through two difficulty stages of the game and know there’s at least another 3 – including a female cheerleading mode which is the game’s hardest setting and looks insanely challenging.

Unless you are totally hopeless at rhythm games it is utterly impossible not to enjoy this game!

Oekaki Puzzle Battle From Yuusha-Oh GaoGaiGar

This game is a shitty bit of mecha-licensed nonsense that I don’t understand at all. Crucially, however, it’s a collection of nonogram puzzles (as seen in the Picross games on the GB and SFC) and I love nonograms.

Each grid has numerical clues along its rows and columns and, by using logic and deduction, you can determine which squares on the grid to colour in or not. The result ends up being some lo-res image of some object such as a lamp, keys or glasses. There’s four ranges of puzzles starting at easy (10×10 grids) to super-hard (40×40). Like sudoku, the stylus makes great sense in completing traditional paper and pen games in a more up-to-date fashion.

The music is dire and repetitive and the graphics are functional at best. I look forward to more nonogram games for the DS – but I fear I won’t see them.

Pheonix Wright – Ace Attorney

Ah, take me back to the old school! Pheonix Wright is an alarmingly limited game that features some very bleepy-bloppy (but rather catchy) music and a decent array of character art and nicely drawn backdrops.

The level of interaction in the game consists primarily of click the ‘next’ arrow to allow on-screen text to flow from one paragraph to the next. You’ll be doing that for roughly 90% of the game. You might also get to make decisions as to what to say or where to go. These decisions are made by pressing on one of between two and five on-screen buttons. Every now and again you will get to use an item from your inventory but, generally speaking, this game has very little for the player to do.

The scenario, however, is quite novel. You are a defense attorney and you play a series of episodes that play out like an episode of Perry Mason or Columbo. A seemingly water-tight story is presented showing your client committing a crime (typically murder) and being caught. The game then leads you through the episode by gathering evidence (talking to people or double-tapping areas around the crime scene to find clues or topics to ask people). When you’ve gathered so much evidence the game moves to the court-room scenes where the same characters give testimonies and you get to interrupt them and conduct cross-examinations and, hopefully, find contradictions in each case that show your client to be NOT GUILTY and even find the real culprit. Each episode features a fairly outlandish crime and some incredibly cliched character stylings. This isn’t to the detriment of the game and makes the cross examinations far more enjoyable as the characters’personalities really come across well.

Where the game succeeds is not in it’s limited interaction but in the quality of it’s writing. To be honest, like all point and click adventure games, you can’t really go too far wrong. You may get stuck for a while and not make further progress but it’s unlikely you’ll ever fail. The difficulty tends to come in at various points in the courtroom where you know you must present some evidence to undo a witnesses tesitmony but you’ll find it hard to determine which piece of evidence you have will do the trick as, even when you select correctly, the connection between testimony and evidence may seem very chancey. The writing covers this very well and and is the game’s compelling factor to make you keep playing. You want to see characters crack or uncover twists or just enjoy being called ‘Pal’ by Detective Gumshoe when you see him.

The writing keeps you guessing and keeps you interested but I find the gameplay to be fairly flat and very limited. The charm of the narrative and the tension of the court trials are the high points without question.

Well written games are nothing new and although this is an enjoyable game it is nothing that hasn’t been done before decades ago by companies like LucasArts or Infocom. These ‘Interactive Books’ have been a staple diet of many a japanese gamer’s life and most of their PC games (including the wildly popular Princess Maker series) follow this format. Capcom have been smart enough to create a new kind of hero and find a setting that suits western audiences as much as (if not more than) their eastern counterparts and the result is Pheonix Wright.

Good call Capcom. Good timing too.

So, those are the ones at the top of my list. Disappointments so far include New Super Mario Bros whose classic Mario control mechanism of holding down the run button most of the time just kills my hand in about 5 minutes flat. The forced use of the touchscreen to select stored powerups is also something that rubs me the wrong way. Starfox Command is fairly underwhelming too. The Mario 64 remake is an absolute travesty of control and shows just how uncomfortable and unsuited to 3D gaming a stiff digital pad can be.

I’ve enjoyed Yoshi’s Touch and Go more than I expected after an initially luke-warm reception to it. In fact there’s a number of games that catch my eye but they do so only as brief diversions from what I feel is ‘proper’ gaming with a full spectrum of gameplay options and achievements. This is what I fear that novelty or gimmicky control will present to gamers – diversions and pleasant distractions but ultimately shallow and limited gameplay.

It’s nice to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. Know what I mean?