Vancouver 2010

By Jonathan Cresswell | February 5, 2010

Massive sport events mean two things. One, the TV schedules are packed with coverage of events I know little or nothing about, and two, tie in video games. With the Winter Olympics coming up, Sega’s released their inevitable Vancouver 2010 game.

Vancouver 2010 boasts a whopping 14 different events in its main menu. This, quite simply, is a lie. There might be 14 different options, but there’s realistically about 3 different games. It’s the equivalent of those 500-in-one knockoff cartridges for the Gameboy where every 7th game is Pacman. Don’t be fooled by the name MAZE EATER.

One of the first things to be copied and pasted is skiing. Under the guise of Men’s Downhill, Men’s Super-G, Ladies Giant Slalom and Ladies Slalom, it’s a mildly interesting game of skiing down a slope through flagpoles. It’s mildly amusing but they’ve tried to make it more exciting by adding motion blur so extreme you’d think they just discovered the effects section of Photoshop for the first time. It’s also slightly curious how smashing in to the posts seems to have no effect on momentum which stands out a bit when the game is meant to be a realistic and serious take on the sports within.

Next off the photocopier is the trio of Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton. Featuring almost negligible differences between them, you’re using the analogue stick to move up and down the sides of the course without falling off. It’s not too bad to play as you’ve got to balance the high speed and getting a good score for the cornet with being on the sides to the risk of falling off and losing. It’s good fun, up to the point of the death corner in the Luge track. That just ain’t possible, son.

Not all the games are as successful, such as the Ladies Freestyle Aerials, an event that can only be described as a mess. This is thanks to a series of timing bars and crazy moving circles which you have to follow with the analogue sticks and keep aligned that just feel awkward.

I just can’t for the life of me figure out who the audience for this game is. People who like… the cold…? Olympics videogames are practically minigame collections, a genre which is best as a party game. Vancouver 2010 doesn’t seem to have been designed for this, something emphasised best through the achievements – where only one is for playing with other people, with the rest being made up of single player tasks. What sort of person would want to play this game solo? Besides, half the fun of multiplayer games is giving your characters rude names, which the game doesn’t allow. Don’t think you can just use a 1 instead of an I, you’ll need to be more creative than that.

Most of the games are played by taking turns, understandable considering the sports chosen, but that doesn’t make it as fun. Among the exceptions to this you have the snowboard and ski cross events, where they didn’t even bother to make different courses, which is much more lively and enjoyable as a 4 player experience.

Although it might look as though there’s been a lot of time spent working on the game due to the high level of visual polish (it’s quite a good looking game), but beyond that it pretty much feels dead. There’s a complete lack of atmosphere (to THE OLYMPICS) and there’s not much depth to the game to make you want to go back. Sure, make a serious winter sports package, but if you’re doing that then make it in depth, new courses to unlock, have skills to develop…

Vancouver really suffers from a lack of content. An already small amount of included sports is made up of mostly repetitive content, hardly pulling the range of sports you can find at the real games. You can try and hide it by sticking in ‘first person athlete view’ nonsense, but you’re not fooling anyone. The game is lifeless, empty, and contains no content that’ll really draw you back to it. The most fun you’ll have is trying to come up with creative ways of writing rude names. Say hello the newest representative from China, Qi r Buii.

Besides, it’s a sports collection that very rarely asks you to mash buttons. Forget the speed skating sliding nonsense – THAT is what these games are supposed to be about. At least we get next year off from Olympics tie-in rubbish…

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MAG 256 Launch Event

By Jonathan Cresswell | February 2, 2010

Sony’s new PS3 game MAG, which stands for Massive Action Game, is both the laziest title in the history of gaming and a pretty accurate description of what happens. It’s certainly a game, shooting does classify as action, and it is of a considerable scale. MAG’s hook is that you can play it online with up to a massive 256 players. To celebrate this, the launch event, MAG 256, saw 128 journalists and gamers convene in one room in London. It quite literally sounds like they were half-arsing it.

Developed by Zipper Interactive, best known for the military shooter series SOCOM, MAG is what happens when you think 8 v 8 games aren’t exciting enough. Set in a modern war with three private military corporations in a ‘shadow war’, it’s a first person shooter set on a massive scale.

To match the scale of the game, the event was set around a giant structure of the numbers 256, and also featured a wall displaying tweets with the hashtag #mag256 projected larger than reason would allow. Being highly mature, I began to fill this up with tweets about my journey to the event, my desire to CONTROL the screen, and random twaddle.

“I am looking down on you all. This is because I am better than you. Also, I am on a balcony.”

Stopping me from texting were the announcements from the ‘Voice of MAG’, a man whose parents either hated him or was given a name to set him on one career path, instructing us to return to our “battlestations”, to play 2 rounds of each of the 3 game modes.

I tend not to enjoy online shooters too much as I find they’re over-competitive. Many multiplayer modes have their own game elements and rules and so the only time you get to practice at them is when you go online: and with the level of responsibility you get in your small team combined with the verbal abuse you’ll receive over the headset if you’re not good, it’s very offputting to get the practice in you need to be any good, and so I just avoid the game.

But with MAG, and this might seem like odd praise, you’re allowed to be a bit crap. This isn’t to say the game is broken, it’s not, rather that you’re one of 128, relieving the pressure, and within that you’ve got a group that’s structured and you can be given orders. You can choose to maybe focus on sniping, or do the most healing (because no-one else seemed to), or try and take people out but you can still feel that you have a role within the team. You might not have the entire war resting on your shoulders but you can still make a difference by sticking around that control tower and defending it as people from the opposite team made attempts one by one to take it. It might not be the best strategies used by both sides, but it worked and was enjoyable.

The thing that MAG is really effective at is getting the feeling of being at war. I mean that in a good way, if such thing is possible. The scale of the battles is huge and with other players running around too you really get a good sense of it. Instead of being limited to a linear path, there are huge environments to explore and fight in… although sometimes it did feel repetitive in terms of running to get to a point, dying, respawning and repeat.

The PS3 copes with the demands of the game fairly well. Visually, the characters and environment all looked good. The animation… less so, but I’m not sure whether it was the fact 128 people were on the same internet connection to the states or that the game is more jerky than beef jerky. Characters would sometimes judder around slightly making it hard to know whether your shot hit them (just wait a few frames and you’ll find out), but vehicles were the worst. The tanks would just make huge jumps around the map looking so awkward and stuttering so much that even the worst stop motion animator would tell you that you need to make that smoother.

For a game that could be a complete mess due to the sheer size of it, MAG is a great surprise. The levels feel of a great scale and if you manage to get a full game going it really does feel lively. The controls work (though having the healing gun and grenades one button press away from each other is highly dangerous) and the respawns didn’t feel too long away.

It wasn’t the most ideal situation to play the game, giving everyone headsets while standing so close with such loud TVs meant that it was easier not to talk to anyone and guess where your platoon leader goes. Despite that though, I’m really impressed with MAG. It pulls off a difficult concept really well, though how well that transfers to the real world playing of the game is another matter – hopefully Zipper will release new content and encourage people to keep playing it so you get the full experience of it.

Oh, also, MAG. Seriously, they couldn’t come up with another name? MAG? It sounds like something you might hear shouted while someone smashes the table. Sony clearly have high expectations of the target audience, walking in to the shop and just shouting MAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Don’t mind me, just over thinking things.

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Games in ‘not really the problem’ sensationalist shocker!

By Jonathan Cresswell | January 22, 2010

In the latest ‘games are bad’ accusation from the UK press, the free London newspaper The Metro has claimed that video games are the cause of an increase of the bone disease rickets as people are staying inside instead of going out in the sun, leading to a deficiency of vitamin D.

The paper cites research from the British Medical Journal, but like all of these stories when you actually look in to what they found out it’s been distorted and taken out of context. Although the research really is about Vitamin D deficiency, it’s covering a range of illnesses that could be caused due to it, and bone deformity (rickets) is just one of them.

So how valid is the blame on games? It’s more of an exaggeration, it seems. The press release about the work from Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham does mention games, but purely as an example, stating that the UK diet often lacks vitamin D, and changes in lifestyle “such as children staying indoors playing computer games” could be explanations why.

Nutrition seems to be the main issue here, but the second you mention games, that becomes the automatic scapegoat. The same press release also mentions how people not having cod liver oil regularly as they may have done 50 years ago is something that’s cited as a notable change, and the “changing ethnic makeup of the population”.

Although a significant source of vitamin D is sunlight, to blame games on this alone is highly reductionist and irresponsible. After all, it’s the newspapers that are telling us not to go outside as the second we do we’ll end up getting skin cancer or rabies. In fact, outside is just dangerous in general. You could get mugged by a rapist paedophile.

Gaming isn’t so much the cause of people not going outside, rather one of many things people do while inside. Other things people could potentially do inside include watching TV, reading, masturbating furiously and playing “Duck Duck Goose” with wheelie chairs. The latter of those, turns out, is quite fun. However, today’s cover of the Metro isn’t saying that BOWLING CAUSES RICKETS in a shocking turn of sensationalist bullshit, it’s that gaming is the latest in the line of things to hate. Maybe yes, people are playing games instead of going outside at times… well, encourage people to go outside. If rickets is something that’s a risk at childhood, get the parents to do something about it. Or at least, the media should be encouraging them to do so rather than just throwing everyone in to a state of panic.

Instead of running around pointing the finger at anything you can like an uninformed lunatic, you could actually be more proactive in to looking in to the solutions. Parents should encourage their kids to go outside more could be one. But when the scientists are suggesting things like supplementing vitamin D in to things by law such as milk as solutions, there’s your damn story, newspapers. It might not be as glamorous as “GAMING MAKES YOU DIE”, but you’d actually be doing a service to your audience.

Informing and educating. It’d make a nice change.

Posted in Opinion | 4 Comments

WIN: When World of Warcraft meets Coffee..

By Jonathan Cresswell | January 11, 2010

Unless, like me, you’ve spent the last week or so pretty much living in bed, it’s been hard to ignore the Snowmageddon that’s been sweeping the nation. And in a situation like that, there’s nothing better to do than sit down, with a hot drink, and play video games.

There’s probably other ways of spending the time, but it wouldn’t be useful to talk about those when we’re about to talk about the aforementioned activities, as BritishGaming has got some unique World of Warcraft Raiding Kits to give away courtesy of Starbucks.

These special packages consist of a limited edition WoW themed mug, a USB cup warmer, and samples of Starbucks’ upcoming instant coffee, VIA, which is scheduled to be released in March. There have only been 25 of these mugs made, so you’ve a chance at getting a rather unique item.

Unfortunately, until the kits arrived at BGB Towers I forgot that I don’t like coffee, making me possibly the worst choice to review it. Thankfully, scientific studies I’ve just made up state that Dads tend to like coffee, and I happen to have one of those. The reliable verdict from him is generally positive, and if you’re looking for an instant coffee that tastes more like real coffee, it certainly fulfils that criteria and does what it sets out to. More significantly, it’s got lots of caffeine, and that’s all that truly matters in life.

To be in with a chance of winning one of the two kits, simply answer this question.

The mug shows a Hearthstone from World of Warcraft on it. What does a Hearthstone do in the game?
a) Teleport you to a home place
b) Attach a thunderhand to your attack
c) Confuse editors unfamiliar with the game into thinking someone stuck an additional H in to the word but with no idea which one of the H’s they should take out

Send your answer that you probably just found on Google you cheating git in to an email with your full name and address to winstuff@britishgaming.co.uk – with the subject title “Starbucks”.

You have until 7pm GMT on January 14th 2010 to enter. 2 people with the correct answer will be chosen at random to win kits. No cash alternative. UK residents only, employees of BritishGaming.co.uk, Starbucks and Activision Blizzard are illegible from this competition. 1 entry per person.

If you’re a company that has a product you’d like us to give away with a tenuous link to the video games industry or would just like to shower our wonderful audience with goodies, email bgb @ britishgaming.co.uk.

Posted in News | 1 Comment

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

By Mark Brown | January 1, 2010

Happy New Year! Time to mark more influential, innovative and absurdly popular events from the last decade. See our coverage of the first five years here.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Hot Coffee
July 20th 2005, The ESRB announced that Grand Theft Auto: SA would be re-rated as Adults Only when a sex minigame was found hidden in the game’s code.

Many games have seen the destructive side of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, from Mortal Kombat to Manhunt 2, but none received as much press and controversy as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. While it was removed from the final game, Rockstar left the code and assets for a sex minigame in the game’s database of files, allowing savvy hackers to restore the secret scene with unofficial patches. This saw hectic legal battles, the game being banned in certain countries and a series of re-releases, patches and recalls.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

For those about to Rock…
November 8th 2005, Harmonix and Activision release Guitar Hero on Playstation 2 with a plastic guitar controller.

Plenty of gamers were excited about Guitar Hero, with its cool guitar peripheral and killer soundtrack of (terrible) covers – what we didn’t expect was the progenitor of a gargantuan sub-industry of music games. With Harmonix now at EA, the games industry is subjected to new Guitar Hero, Band Hero and Rock Band releases multiple times per year as well as endless downloadable content, spin-offs like DJ Hero and artistic specific releases. The original Guitar Hero, which didn’t even reach Europe for six month, was a rather inauspicious introduction to one of gaming’s biggest earning genres.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Plink!
November 22nd 2005, Xbox 360 launches with massive games, HD graphics, effortless online play and… achievements.

Who could predict the potential addictive force of giving gamers imaginary rewards for completing menial tasks? Wherever you go and whatever you play on Xbox Live, you’re constantly adding to your collection of trophies and showing them off to the world, whether you completed Call of Duty on veteran or just pressed start. They’ve been endlessly copied in World of Warcraft (via a patch in 2008), Steam (with The Orange Box in 2007), Playstation 3 (via update in 2008), iPhone games and flash game services.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Horse Armour to The Ballad of Gay Tony
April 3rd 2006, Bethesda asks gamers to pay £1.50 for decorative horse armour.

While not the first piece of downloadable content to appear on Xbox Live, it certainly bought the new distribution system to the forefront with its pointless, superficial content. Publishers are still testing the water with DLC but we’ve started to see a more level playing field for new cars, guns, maps, levels and entire storylines, delivered À la carte.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Wii Would Like to Play
November 19th 2006, Nintendo launches the Wii in North America

Nintendo, previously in last place with the Gamecube, decided to find a new market instead of compete with Sony and Microsoft for the same old teenage male demographic. With its intuitive controls, simple games and living-room multiplayer, the Wii garnered incredible gender and age neutral appeal. While some games, from yoga mat Wii Fit to wand waving Wii Music, have drawn ire from hardcore gamers, the Wii’s ridiculous sales are a testament to Nintendo’s fresh approach. Microsoft’s Natal and Sony’s new motion controller are also radiant evidence of its welcome innovation.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Red Ring of Death
July 5th 2007, Microsoft announces an automatic 3 year warranty for broken 360s after a spate of faulty boxes.

It’s a testament to the Xbox 360’s quality that the system is even still on sale after one of the biggest disasters in console history. Forget the PS3’s poor sales and the Wii’s lame game selection –Xbox 360s were breaking down at an alarming rate. After so many gamers found their 360s overheating, warping the motherboard and messing up the chips (shown by three red lights on the console’s fascia), Microsoft had to redesign the console’s innards multiple times and offer a three year warranty to every 360 owner, costing the company upwards of $1 billion.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

There’s an App for That
July 10th 2008, Apple introduces the iPhone and iPod Touch to third party apps and games.

How much do you want to pay for a game? £40? £20? £7.50? 59p?! When Apple introduced their latest devices to third party apps from anyone willing to plonk down cash for the SDK, they inadvertently created one of the most heated marketplaces and frenzied industries since the North American video game crash of the 80s. There are now over 100,000 apps available on iTunes, all vying for customers by reducing prices and offering as much bang for your buck as possible – when there are 100 Sudoku games to buy, why should I choose yours? Alongside oodles of indie developers, Konami, EA, SEGA, Capcom and id are just some big name publishers to get on board with Apple.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Recession Hits the Industry
January 29th 2009, Ensemble Studios shuts down, paving the way for more developers.

The video game industry is a turbulent and ferocious beast at the best of times with massive investments riding on a relatively narrow marketplace – throw a global economic crisis into the mix and you’ve got a problem. Many developers have shut down since the friendly named credit crunch transformed into the evil sounding recession, including GRIN (Wanted, Bionic Commando), Ensemble (Age of Empires, Halo Wars), Pandemic (Mercenaries) and Free Radical (Timesplitters, HAZE).

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

Duke Nukem Forever is Dead
May 8th 2009, 3D Realms fires the entire Duke Nukem Forever team and puts the game on permanent ice.

The butt of gaming’s longest running joke, Duke Nukem Forever’s promised release spanned 12 years, poking into two decades of gaming. Snippets of Duke Nukem Forever art, announcements of its delay and the constant reminder that someone, somewhere, is still working on this ridiculous game were valuable sources of consistency in the industry. Whether or not it would have even lived up to the hype is debatable, but it was put to rest in May last year.

The Decade in Images – 2005 to 2009

FarmVille hits Facebook
June 19th 2009, The most popular Facebook game yet, Farmville, is released onto the social networking sphere.

FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Restaurant City; some of the most popular games in the world and you’ve probably never even heard of them. This decade’s obsession with social networking wasn’t just a boon for MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, but also for the casual gaming industry that’s grown around them. Farmville pulls in a colossal 73 million monthly active players by offering it for free, but makes its cash in premium downloadable content and advertising. Is this the future of gaming?

Posted in Features | 2 Comments

Tony Hawk RIDE

By Mark Brown | December 23, 2009

Tony Hawk RIDE

For Tony Hawk’s tenth skateboarding iteration, after being dethroned by EA’s Skate and swapping developers from Neversoft to Robomodo, controllers are out and a bulky plastic skateboard peripheral is in.

Obviously you’re not going to be launching the board up in the air or kicking it into a spinning pirouette, so it’s more a series of codified abstractions than a real skateboard in your living room – push down on the back to Ollie, wiggle the board a little to do tricks and wave your hand over the sensors to grab it. On screen your awkward movements and uncoordinated seizures translate into the tricks and moves we all know and love – Christ Airs and Melons and Turkish Delights and Polish Social Workers.

As you can imagine, seeing your physical actions being read by the magic electronic plank beneath you, and spat into the game world, is quite exciting. It’s like when you first used a computer mouse in the eighties or nineties, but now you’re standing on it and looking like a burke in front of your friends. You scrape your foot along the floor and as if by magic (or an infrared sensor on the side of the board) you start to move in the game.

It’s really quite stimulating – after the 15 minutes of configuration, Tony Hawk’s pandering voiceovers and video tutorials where Tony’s wearing the absolute whitest Vans trainers in the world – to be wobbling about on a plastic board and making somewhat approximated animations appear in the game world. It’s physically engrossing and kinetically pleasing. Then Tony asks you to do a “flip flick trick”, which sees you popping the board up, rotating it 90 degrees clockwise and then swinging it back in line with your TV. Easy, let’s do it.

Your character does a spin and lands on his face. And then your foot is apparently over a sensor so your skater does a nosegrab instead. And then your skater does a manual, for some reason. Then your Xbox crashes.*

Tony Hawk RIDE

I don’t want to belabour the point, but I spent 2 hours reading about this fabled trick on the internet. Developers Robomodo released some handy YouTube videos but the comments are filled with angry gamers who can’t make their complicated (and annotated) instructions work. Forums have dedicated topics to this line of trickery and video reviews bring it up as an impossible move. I think it would be easier to just buy a skateboard, learn how to ride it and land a ‘varial’ in real life. Backwards. On the moon.

None of this is made any easier by the half-second lag between living-room-wobbles and in-game- manoeuvres, the ultra-sensitive sensors that launch you into grabs if you step on them or the general inconsistency from one movement to another. Sometimes the board is ultra sensitive and other times it just goes to sleep. Leave the board perfectly still on the floor and menus will spin and skaters will push themselves to their inevitable doom. That definitely isn’t going to help matters when you actually step on it.

Therefore the game is, in a word, broken. If your 360 controller’s guide button only popped open the dashboard once in five presses, or your toaster would only start toasting when you slam the button with the force of an Olympic God**, you’d probably start digging through your cupboard for a receipt. Or a hammer.

It’s hard to pin down, exactly, where the majority of the blame lies. The skateboard controller itself is actually a pretty decent piece of kit – sturdy, aesthetically pleasing and its grip tape and curved underbelly give a pretty accurate representation of a skateboard. The game itself however, rattling about in the large box like a toy frog in a box of Shreddies, is so embarrassingly awful that it makes Proving Ground and American Wasteland look like ambitious artistic endeavours.

It’s so far away from being a satisfying and complete game that you’d swear they accidently left the proof-of-concept beta build in your box. It’s shallow, stupid and lacks many of the features that Neversoft built in nine refinements of the series. You won’t miss doing tuck jumps or hanging onto gutters, but the session markers and video creation tools are sorely missed. But you can still dress your skater up in different clothes! Ell Oh Ell, I made him 7 foot tall and really fat!

Tony Hawk RIDE

The four (four!) skateboarding modes it gives you are: time trial, trick, vert and challenge. If you say “free skate” is a mode, you’re getting slapped. The first three basically require you to wiggle about enough to get a good enough time or score to complete it. Challenge is the fun one (that’s sarcasm, if you couldn’t detect it, challenges make me want to gouge my eyes out) that asks you to do extremely specific moves. Fun, challenging and satisfying when you pull it off, TV-smashingly infuriating for the hundred attempts that you failed because the board didn’t work right or the game arbitrarily said you failed.

Obviously talking about the terrible graphics, incessant glitches, embarrassing skater videos and uninspiring cities is pretty redundant when, you know, the game doesn’t work correctly. But the menus deserve special mention – they are, without a doubt, the least helpful menus since Little Chef. I could write an entire dissertation on this ugly, mangled mess of inconsistent actions and useless information boxes. Sometimes you can navigate (poorly) with the skateboard, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you can press the buttons on the side of the board, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes they say “clearing the vert gap is totally gnarly” without an iota of irony.

Between every mode you must – take a deep breath – accept a pop-up by doing an Ollie, insert your name by physically picking up an Xbox 360 controller, back out of the event, enter the next event, reposition the board, kick the start button and do an Ollie. It could be cut in half if they didn’t ask “Regular or Goofy?” between every event. Oh, you can remember that my man is naked except shoes and tight shorts, but you can’t remember my preferred position on the skateboard?

nullTony Hawk RIDE is rubbish. It’s almost amazing how rubbish they managed to make it and still have the balls to charge the price they are. RIDE is, at a very basic level, a few minutes of physical, kinetic fun. But it’s more of the “£1 a go in a Brighton Arcade” kind of fun, and not the “£99.99 boxed product from Argos” one.

*That’s not a joke for effect – the game has fully locked up my Xbox 360 three times since receiving the game.
**This is also not a joke – my toaster literally doesn’t work 9 times out of 10. It’s completely irrelevant though.

Posted in Playstation 3, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 3 Comments

The Decade in Images – 2000 to 2004

By Mark Brown | December 2, 2009

January 2010 marks the first year of the… teenies. Tensies. Whatever. It also gives every writer on the internet an opportunity to wax lyrical about the previous ten years of films, games, lightbulbs or whatever the blog writes about.

The noughties mark video gaming’s fourth decade; an explosive ten years that have changed the way we play, purchase and interact with games. No longer a race for impeccable photo realism and eye-popping graphics; video game competition, innovation and evolution has splintered into the realms of online gaming and communication, interface and control, enticing a wider spectrum of players and brand new distribution platforms.

This decade has seen two console generations from the Playstation 2 in 2000 to the Playstation 3 in 2006, the rise of music games, casual games, digital distribution, Xbox Live and some of the greatest games in the history of the medium.

But this isn’t a list of our favourite games or our most memorable experiences (though I’m sure that’s coming). Instead, this article features news stories, game releases and system launches that have shaped the gaming industry’s direction and trends. Sure we’ve had to limited console launches to one per generation and we’ve had to drop off some of our favourites, like Resident Evil 4 and Half Life 2, in favour of less traditional influences like Bejeweled and The Sims, but this is a pretty nice list of the decade’s most significant stepping stones.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

The Sims Invade the World
January 31st 2000, Electronic Arts launches The Sims in North America on Windows

The Sims is a gargantuan creature in the gaming sphere, a franchise than spans PC and consoles with a bevy of expansion packs, upgrades and spin-offs, totalling over 52 million sales worldwide – all in. But perhaps its biggest claim to fame is as the progenitor of the casual game, an experience adored by a wider spectrum of hardcore fans than just teenagers and young males. The Sims married architecture and interior decoration with family simulation and a stripped down, virtual version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to create an addictive and family friendly experience.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

The Death of the Dreamcast
January 31st 2001, Sega of America officially announces that the Dreamcast will cease production and they will develop and publish games on non-Sega platforms

The first giant news story of the 21st century saw turbulent times for Sega, the seventeen year console manufacturer and hardened veteran of the industry. Japanese media corporation Nihon Keizai Shimbun ran a story that Sega was to cease production of the Dreamcast and begin software development on other platforms. After an initial spate of denial, Sega of America officially announced they were becoming a third party software publisher on January 31st 2001 and the Dreamcast itself was discontinued in November 2001. Sega has since become a formidable software publisher and has not since returned to the console manufacturing space.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

The Addiction Begins, Bejeweled is Unleashed
May 20th 2001, PopCap launches puzzle game Bejeweled onto the web as a free flash game

For some, a field of coloured gems can bring back nightmarish memories of gruelling addiction and exhausting compulsion; Bejeweled was PopCap’s first successful run of their virtual nicotine formula. Originally titled Diamond Mine, the new moniker was suggested by Microsoft, one of the first carriers of PopCap’s addictive toxin. The game would later be passed around Xbox Live, Facebook, iPhone, Mobile Phones and even World of Warcraft. Perhaps the most important casual game of all time, Bejeweled has been downloaded over 150 million times; a larger group than the population of Russia. Plus, like The Sims, Bejewelled skews female and over 30s – a group that hardcore gamers bemoan and companies like Nintendo would one day hope to dominate.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

The original Murder Simulator, Grand Theft Auto III
October 22nd 2001, Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto III into North American stores on Playstation 2

Grand Theft Auto III became the poster boy for controversy with excessive media attention, boycotts and protests. It introduced the world to Jack Thompson and its gratuitous violence made it an easy target for the media. Separately, other game developers simply marvelled at its unique construction; GTA massively popularised open worlds and non linear mission structures, which led to a never ending barrage of copy-cats and rip-offs. Games in the genre are still infrequently referred to as “GTA Clones”.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

Finish the Fight on Xbox Live
November 15th 2001, Xbox is released in North America with Halo: Combat Evolved as the stand out launch title.

Love it, hate it, or just be entirely indifferent towards it, but there’s no denying Halo’s impact on the console FPS. Bungie successfully took the PC’s garbled mess of mouse and keyboard and number-key-arsenal-slots, and shoved them onto a controller with a precision and confidence that rings true today. Its home, the original Xbox, was an ideal testing ground for the Xbox Live we use today and fiddled with Xbox Live Arcade and Downloadable Content, but the ubiquitous built-in hard drive was mysteriously not emulated outside of the Playstation 3.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

Perfect Dark Kazooie Creators lapped up by Microsoft
September 25th 2002, Microsoft confirms purchase of Rare at X02 Event in Spain

British developers Rare stood hand in hand with Nintendo through most of its existence, providing games like Battletoads, Donkey Kong Country, Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie as characterful action adventures on all of Nintendo’s major platforms. Microsoft wanted a piece of their family-fun magic for Xbox so they did what they do best, and threw a massive amount of money to buy them out. The $375 Million figure has bought the Xbox brand games such as Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Perfect Dark Zero and Viva Pinata. Lately Rare has concentrated on projects such as Xbox 360’s avatars and the upcoming project Natal. Should they have kept the receipt?

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

Square and Enix Combine to Form Japanese RPG Monopoly
April 1st 2003, Square Co and Enix Corporation merge to form Square Enix

Taking Enix, the creators of Dragon Quest, and Square, the creators of Final Fantasy, and mashing them up into a giant mega-company is like merging Marvel with DC or Sony with Microsoft or the Earth with the Sun. The company also owns Taito for even greater monopolisation of the Japanese market, and Eidos for some Western flavour.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

Valve releases Steam
September 12th 2003, Valve launches Digital Distribution service Steam on PC

Steam, now the most prominent and widely used digital distribution service on PC, had a particularly rocky launch. As gamers fled to download Counter-Strike 1.6 in the 2002 Beta period or Half-Life 2 as it launched in 2004, the servers strained and under the flood of users, disgruntled customers found the software buggy and some couldn’t play Half Life 2 for days. However, Valve pushed through initial adversity, and ridicule from the gaming public, to become the most important content delivery system for PC gamers with over 20 million active users, support from almost every major publisher and a range of mods and independent games.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

Nintendo DS Released
November 21st 2004, Nintendo launches the touch operated, dual screened system in North America.

The first real test of new interaction possibilities, the Nintendo DS was the first major console to offer an alternative to traditional buttons and controllers. If the current war over interface can be traced backwards, perhaps Nintendo’s success with the DS marked the way for Wii, which led to – well, we’ll get to that. Going toe to toe with Sony’s PSP system, Nintendo asked the question “do gamers want great graphics and media functionality on their handheld system?” If sales numbers are any indication, then the answer is probably no.

The Decade in Images - 2000 to 2004

World of Warcraft opens the doors to Azeroth
November 23rd 2004, Blizzard Entertainment launches Massively Multiplayer Online game World of Warcraft

While the birth of the MMORPG just missed the noughties with releases like Ultima Online and Everquest in 1997 and 1999 respectively, none have had such ludicrous success as World of Warcraft. The game now occupies an estimated 62% share of the MMO subscription market with its 11 million subscribers, despite releasing five years ago. Blizzard has shown the staying power of games and the immense profitability of games as services instead of one-off products. Many have tried, and failed, to emulate Warcraft’s success, but the pursuit of the successful MMO is still raging on as Star Trek and Star Wars both gear up for Massive Online launches in the next decade.

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Week Late Watch: Assassin’s Creed II

By Mark Brown | November 25, 2009

Assassin's Creed II

I’ve had the exact same experience with Assassin’s Creed II, a free roaming action epic set in 15th century Italy, that I had with its Third Crusade predecessor two years ago – I just want to climb buildings, leap across rooftops and jump into haystacks.

I don’t care for Assassin’s Creed II’s combat as my battle scenarios mostly play out as silly dances of taunts, counters and disarms. I also can’t get a hang of the ‘social stealth’ element, which still seems as broken and inarticulate as the first game – I find it impossible to maintain the believable illusion of surreptitiousness that the game’s creators intended. Perhaps it’s the lack of sophistication in the artificial intelligence or the ineffectiveness of the controls, but I just can’t pull off a sneaky stroll through a crowd – I’ll be seen, fumble my way to the target, messily kill him and then high tail it out until I find a haystack to leap in.

And, despite a very courageous and notable effort to counter criticisms of Creed’s repetitive nature, I still find the cities teeming with the same concepts and ideas, over and over again. The world is created from a number of repeated and identifiable attributes (bench, haystack, courtesans etc), battles always play out in remarkably similar ways (get seen, dispatch a handful of foes, hide) and mission objectives aren’t really that different from task to task (assassinate, deliver message, chase).

Perhaps Creed II’s biggest accomplishment is in hiding its banal and repetitive ideas better than the first game. There’s an economy now, there are more side missions, there are more cinematic events and there’s a better flow to the story and progression. With far more things to distract your attention, it’s harder to fall into the first game’s repetitious monotony of climb building, pick pocket, eaves drop, kill.

But more importantly, you can still climb around the city.

Assassin's Creed II

In Assassin’s Creed, traversal and exploration aren’t just tools to plump out the play time with superfluous collectible trinkets (although AC2 is certainly guilty of that) or to change the pace between fights, but they’re key elements to Creed’s enjoyment. Like the first game, you must ascend the city’s highest buildings to inspect the nearby area and staying on the rooftop is the best way to keep a low profile and move with the quickest pace across the map.

Plus, Creed II introduces some strictly linear platform sections that offer a refreshing change of pace. They’re straight out of Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia, but they make you survey the area more thoroughly than Florence’s cacophony of rooftops, and encourage you to more with far more reservation and uncertainty than Ezio’s reckless abandon when he’s high above the street.

Assassin’s Creed II also introduces a novel, understated and essential addition to Ezio’s traversal repertoire. First, we need some context though – in inFamous, the Playstation 3 superhero game from earlier this year, getting from a roof to ground level was maddeningly difficult; protagonist Cole had a Katamari-like stickiness that magnetised him to every ledge, sill and outcropping on a building’s facade, making you press “drop” at least 5 times to hit ground level.

Assassin’s Creed rectifies this by letting Ezio drop all the way down, regardless of height, and letting the player reach out for ledges with a button. It’s elegant, it’s interactive and it works.

But this “grasp” mechanic can also be used in normal traversal to rectify jumps and make last-minute grabs for safety. Making judicious and smart use of it will be the difference between clearing a tricky leap and slamming into the ground, or slowly scrambling from building to building or moving with speed and grace. I don’t think you’re even supposed to do it, it feels like a cheat and the game will actually glitch Ezio into a higher climbing position sometimes; as if by magic.

Regardless, it’s an inconspicuous little treat that injects a surprising amount of depth into traversal and fills you with a gushing sense of satisfaction when you pull it off – the headshot of platforming, if you will.

Assassin's Creed II

It reminded me why I love platformers so much; there’s a hidden art to them, layers of complication and sophistication and a pure rush of kinetic energy when you leap between platforms, be they buildings or spongy mushroom worlds. Nailing an incredible leap between buildings in Mirror’s Edge is one hundred times more satisfying than shooting one of the game’s armed goons between the eyes.

There was a thread on NeoGAF lately where member ‘Mutanthands’ recalled the story of his wife’s interest in Assassin’s Creed II wane from extremely excited, as she saw Ezio dash across Venice rooftops and explore underground catacombs, to completely turned off, as Ezio stabbed a guard through the heart with his hidden blade. It sparked a pretty interesting topic of discussion; the pursuit of the pacifistic game.

Think of any character-based action title, from Grand Theft Auto to Uncharted to Killzone to Modern Warfare to Halo to Gears of War, and they all involve killing, shooting, dismemberment, sword play and death. I was thinking of compiling a list of non-violent releases in 2009, but the best I could come up with were Telltale’s Point and Click Adventures, Flower and Noby Noby Boy.

The NeoGAF consensus basically came down to the fact that, whether it’s due to sales expectations or an immaturity/narrow-mindedness of developers, that it’s hard to come up with engaging gameplay if there aren’t enemies, weapons and combat. From Pacman to Asteroids to Modern Warfare 2, bloodshed is an integral part of the experience. Enemies add tension, utilising your weapons requires skill and dispatching foes floods your brain with endorphins.

But I put forward the humble platformer, and ask developers to rethink its merits, limits and opportunities. Make more Tomb Raiders, Mirror’s Edges and Assassin’s Creeds, but tone down or remove the combat entirely, replacing the bloodshed with new ideas and fresh takes.

I just wish game developers would look at traversal, platforming and exploration with as much joy and passion as they do with guns, bullets and explosions; we could get some really exciting games.

Assassin's Creed II

Side Note:

I played a little Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines on PSP, but just wasn’t having much fun. I also tried Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters because I was on a Lombax kick after Crack in Time, but that wasn’t very enjoyable either. It’s half to do with the crappy controls, but also to do with the short-sightedness of some handheld developers.

Take two massive Playstation shooter brands; Resistance and Killzone. The former’s PSP game (Resistance Retribution) is a shoddy third person shooter that compensates for the controls with ludicrous aim assist and is best played when you hook up a Dualshock 3. The latter, however (Killzone Liberation), was a unique isometric, dungeon crawling shooter hybrid that I really must revisit since enjoying Killzone 2 so much.

I haven’t played either thoroughly enough to make a judgement call (and, to be honest, Metacritic sways in Resistance’s favour), but I think I’d much rather sink my teeth into Killzone.

PSP versions of blockbuster console titles really should reconsider porting large screen action onto the PSP’s tiny LCD; some come away unscathed (Tomb Raider, Burnout and Tony Hawks games work great on the system), but others just feel shoehorned onto the portable’s unconventional controller layout, and struggle to be enjoyable or hardy.

How much fun would it be to play a side scrolling Shadow Complex-like Uncharted on PSP, or a Ratchet and Clank RPG? Assassin’s Creed II could have gone for a more Sim City or Civilisation like system, expanding on the game’s shallow Villa upgrading system, and tied in with the PS3 version that way.

But until the PSP magically grows a second analogue stick, can we stop making games that require one?

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Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

By Mark Brown | November 16, 2009

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

It’s a tad distressing just how little fanfare a new Ratchet and Clank game receives. Always hilarious, expertly crafted and now honed to near perfection in this eighth(ish) instalment, the little Lombax who could has seemingly been left in the cold this overcrowded Christmas season.

These games always come down to a simple formula; a big spoonful of shooter, a dab of platformer here and a dab of puzzler there, a sprinkling of humour to sweeten the taste and a touch of intergalactic item collection to mask the smell. Its closest analogy is “Zelda in Space” or “Zelda by Americans”; Zelda anything really, with its overworld, dungeons and inventory of key items that open shortcuts, reveal hidden treats and progress gameplay.

But something Link never had was a portable frog-like alien that belched supersonic burps – especially powerful when its cheeks are full of noxious gas. As ever, Ratchet is primarily a shooter, tasking you with defeating hoards of robots and beasties with an arsenal of ludicrous weapons. But there are plenty of pure platforming sections (some parts eerily reminiscent of Super Mario Galaxy’s spherical worlds), some space shooter segments and even some ludicrously clever puzzle sections too.

You see, while Ratchet is frolicking about the cosmos, catching up on Lombax lore with General Azimuth and putting a stop to Dr Nefarious’ world domination plan, his robotic sidekick Clank is stuck in the Great Clock, keeping time in check as the enviably titled “caretaker”. Whoever built this giant chronometer had a thing for momentary temporal displacement and trivial time paradoxes as traditional door locks have been eschewed in favour of tricky time manipulation puzzles.

Using a number of “time pads”, Clank can record his actions temporally and then play them back in tandem with his current self. This spaghetti mess of paradoxical robots has a time-travelling Clank opening doors and pushing buttons for his own future benefit; one Clank you recorded 30 seconds ago can open the door for another Clank, who launches a third into the air to escape.

You typically have far less “time pads” than actions to perform, which means rerecording sections to perform multiple actions with perfect timing. They’re a truly baffling muddle of cognitive coordination, expert timing and shrewd forward thinking, but absolutely rewarding brain twisters. If you’re stuck, you can skip them and forfeit some benefits, but the satisfaction of figuring them out is a far bigger loss than the excess bolts you’ll receive.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

Back to Ratchet. While he explores some of the most interesting levels in the franchise, some of which can be transformed and saved through time skipping quests, his arsenal isn’t so fresh. Some of Tools of Destruction’s most inventive weapons, like the electric Shock Ravager whip and the insect spawning Nano-Swarmers, are lost in favour of too many stun weapons and hardly any memorable guns.

Plus, the upgrade system is seriously neutered; where Tools of Destruction let you customise every weapon to your exact specification, Crack in Time limits in-depth modification to just three – the Constructo Pistol, Shotgun and Grenade. Every other weapon is subjected to the simple five stage upgrade system, with a tame bonus for maxing out the gun.

Alongside your weapons, you can also upgrade your armour and your spaceship. This handy space faring jet lets you navigate the game’s open world in style; you can zip between the main planets if you want to rocket through the storyline or you can backtrack to collect thingies and doodads, stop off at tiny spherical planets, fight at the Battleplex or take on extracurricular quests for extra bolts.

You’ll absolutely be encouraged to gather all of these items; now more so than ever with the tantalising allure of Playstation Trophies for finishing off a collection. Constructo Mods let you power up selected weapons, Zoni modify your ship, Ryno V schematics get you one step closer to the game’s uber powerful weapon and Golden Bolts are, as ever, superfluous collectibles for extra bonus content.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

But if you’re not a collectable fiend, the game packs a long and rewarding storyline with plenty of big boss encounters, hilarious cut scenes and memorable plot points. It’s a shame to see no mention (outside of a tiny cameo) by Tools of Destruction’s femme fatale Talwyn or the many other terrific characters from the first PS3 game, but the relationship between Ratchet and Clank, the much requested resurgence of Captain Qwark and the uneasy rapport between Ratchet and Azimuth make for an excellent narrative.

nullIn all, A Crack in Time is a winner, easily the best in the series and exemplifying everything that makes Ratchet games so great. It’s expertly paced, filled with hilarious moments and is rendered with graphical splendour – from Pixar quality cut scenes to the beautiful mix of cel-shading and normal texturing. Don’t make the same mistake as everyone else this Christmas season; give Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time some much deserved attention.

Posted in Playstation 3, Reviews | 1 Comment

Left 4 Dead 2 – Chet Faliszek Interview

By Jonathan Cresswell | November 7, 2009

As part of our zombie survival training, BritishGaming talked to Valve’s Chet Faliszek about the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2, discussing the characters, game structure, zombie movies and more.

See the highlights video of the rest of the day: Left 4 Dead 2 – Zombie Survival Training

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Left 4 Dead 2 – Zombie Survival Training

By Jonathan Cresswell | November 5, 2009

As the zombie apocalypse grows ever nearer (or, the launch of Left 4 Dead 2 gets closer), it’s more important to be prepared: and so BritishGaming went to the Riflemaker Gallery in London for a unique training exercise, as military experts trained us in the art of frying pan combat, an Xbox 360 assisted us in trying a bit of the new game, and Valve’s Chet Faliszek gave us his insider view of working on it.

Watch the extended cut of the Chet Faliszek interview tomorrow here on BritishGaming.co.uk

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Hands on – God of War III

By Mark Brown | October 31, 2009

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After playing an entire generation worth of clunky brawlers and button mashing slice-n-dices nicknamed “god of war” clones, it’s easy to forget why they inherited that cheeky moniker in the first place.

But it only takes a few seconds of God of War III, with its brutal blood shedding evisceration and the way it amps simple button presses into glorious lacerating manoeuvres, to remember why Kratos is king. The way the screen shudders erratically when you unleash giant swipes and the floors of ancient Greek palaces become awash with blood. The way you switch between close combat fists, mid range swords and distancing arrows in split second decisions of tactics and violence.

Sony Santa Monica does have a tricky decision though; what secondary pace-changing and palette-cleansing game play can be inserted between fights, but live up to the gargantuan violence and runaway freight-train pace of its brutal combat? Light Tomb-Raidering and harpy-grabbing platforming are admirable attempts, but don’t really fit the bill. Ridiculously fast flights up burning chambers are on the right lines though.

As are the demo’s multiple boss encounters that make a change from the popcorn enemies littered between them; giant mythological beasts that mix combination fighting with quick QTEs, and even make you forget that QTEs suck for a few seconds as you wrench off a lion-monster’s horn and shove it through its skull.

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God of War III is bloody beautiful. The opener of the demo features a giant render of Kratos’ snarling chops; press start and the camera swings out to the play area – no loading screen, no jarring cutscene beat – all in game. The world toys with shadows and contrast to make scenery that would be prerendered backdrops in previous generations, Kratos is constructed from more polygons than some games put together and blood is that gooey, crimson gel that games love so much.

And it sounds bloody amazing too. The epic score, the clinking blades and the thumping bass of each skull crushing punch. If this game doesn’t make you buy an HDTV and a good speaker set up or some quality headphones, nothing will.

And it’s also bloody brutal and borderline sickening. I’ve now pulled out a Cyclops’ eye and ripped off Helios’ head, and I’m not sure my dinner is going to stay down. Every fight ends in some gut wrenching (sometimes literally) manner, some blood spraying finale or a neck wrenching climax where the skin finally tears and the blood is let loose. I’m feeling queasy just typing it.

But gore is God of War’s calling card and without it the visceral, brutal and downright sadistic violence would be silenced, the primal thrill neutred and the game’s claim to fame compromised. Then again, if you disembowel a Centaur, rip out a Cyclops’ eye and remove a head with unrelenting force within a 15 minute demo, I think I’ll be playing with a sick bucket when the full game launches next year.

God of War III will be a Playstation 3 exclusive when it launches in early 2010.

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Warren Spector on the Characters of Epic Mickey

By Mark Brown |

Continuing our coverage of Epic Mickey, the game’s creative director Warren Spector talks us through the weird and wonderful cast of characters that you’ll meet in Epic Mickey’s Cartoon Wasteland.

“We want to honour Disney’s creative legacy; there’s 80 years of creativity here; we all know it, we all love it, we all grew up with it,” explains Spector, “But if we’re going to bring Mickey to an audience that hasn’t really thought about him as a hero for many years we can’t just give people Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and When You Wish upon a Star.” Spector’s presentation flicks through images that are recognizable, but slightly twisted. “We need to come up with something that’s maybe a little more relevant and a little more appealing to a modern audience. We have to give people a new twist on things – take things that are completely familiar to you, we all know them and all love them, and give them a little bit of a dark edge and a difference.

“We give you the pleasure of familiarity, and then we yank the rug from underneath you.”

Epic Mickey

Mickey Mouse
“It seems kind of odd – why would we need to reintroduce Mickey Mouse? He is one of the most recognisable icons on planet earth. But he has never been treated right, in my mind, in videogames; he’s most recognisable to us today as an icon on a watch or a symbol on a t-shirt and not as a character people want to be or even necessarily see in narrative form. We knew we had to make Mickey cool again.

“I want to remind Mickey that he’s a hero, and to be a hero we need to give him purpose and throw him up against problems that are worthy of a hero. I want to remind Mickey that he can be fun and funny; he doesn’t have to be your favourite uncle or the guy who struggles to give Pluto a bath. He can be youthful – modern Mickey is frankly a little infantile and I want to age him up just a little bit. And one more the more important, and perhaps controversial, things is that I want to remind him that it’s ok to be badly behaved. If you go back to the early cartoons in the late 20s and early 30s Mickey is a mischievous little guy; he was badly behaved and that’s ok.”

Epic Mickey

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
“Oswald the Lucky Rabbit – we really do need to reintroduce him because he’s been lost for many years. Oswald is bitter and resentful and has spent the last 80 years wondering why his Dad rejected him in favour of his younger brother who stole the life that should have been his. He was this close to being the most successful and popular cartoon character in the world.“

Epic Mickey

Villains
“We’ve got the Mad Doctor from the early 30s cartoon of the same name and then there’s the true villain of the piece, the stuff of nightmares, The Phantom Blot. We’ll be doing something different, but we’ll hint at that in a little while; we’re not going to show you everything just yet.

“In this cartoon world, every character wants something and if you can figure that out, you can get around fighting them. We had a couple of meetings with John Lassiter and he said something that really turned me around; he talked about Toy Story and when that film really came together was when the team realised that it was all about ‘what does a toy want?’ He asked me ‘what does a cartoon character really want?’ and at that time I didn’t really have an answer for him, but since then we’ve come up with one, but I’m going to keep that a secret.“

Epic Mickey

Gremlins
“We’ve reintroduced the gremlins. Not many people know that Disney Studios created these gremlins back in the 40s with children’s book author Roald Dahl and they were going to make a movie during World War II but they never made it. I’ve been to the archives and held the storyboards in my hands. I love these guys; if you help them they are going to help out a tonne, but it’s going to cost you.”

Epic Mickey

Black Pete
“This is Black Pete; he’s been bedevilling Mickey since 1928 and he’s really humiliated to have to dress up in these clothes. He’ll be around, he’s a running gag in the game but he can be a formidable foe.”

Epic Mickey

Spatters
“We made up some new characters, and these are called Spatters. These are the silly minion of the piece’s villain. Every Disney film has a villain who has silly minions; these are ours. I often call them popcorn units; you can just pop them in your mouth and they’re gone in one bite. They’re really stupid so the villain of the piece is constantly frustrated at home stupid his minions are.
You can erase them, you can make them friendly and you can distract them; you can interact with these guys in all sorts of ways.”

Epic Mickey

Beetleworx
“We’ve created a whole category of enemies which we call Beetleworx. If you want to challenge players over the course of the game, you can’t just have them erasing everything they see, so we wanted to create things that are immune to paint and thinner. These guys are a different kind of challenge, but I’ll just leave it at that for now.”

Epic Mickey

Oswald’s pals
“A lot of people ask ‘are Donald and Minnie and Pluto going to be in the game?’ Well, we’re going to bring them back but in a slightly different form. Oswald is a lonely guy and so he’s created his own version of Mickey’s family. So he’s created these things and how you interact with these guys in the game will affect how Oswald treats you.”

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Golden Joysticks – and the winners are…

By Mark Brown |

BritishGaming.co.uk’s Jonathan Cresswell (left) and Mark Brown (right) attended the awards.

Yesterday, at the Hilton Hotel in London, game designers, publishers, retailers and journalists attended Future Publishing’s 27th annual Golden Joystick awards.

The nominees, voted on by over 1 million members of the public, included games released from 2008 to early 2009, as well as publishers, developers, retailers and forthcoming releases, for extra awards.

Activision Blizzard scooped up the majority of the awards, winning four out of the twelve game specific accolades as well as publisher of the year. Call of Duty: World at War won the multiplayer and Nintendo game of the year awards, Guitar Hero: World Tour won best soundtrack and Modern Warfare 2 was chosen as “one to watch”.

World Tour’s win for best soundtrack was arguably the most contentious award; the press we spoke to all agreed that judicious use of licensed music or completely unique arrangements are far more worthy of praise than a music game’s licensed track selection. Pitting World Tour’s 41 year span of classic rock against Mirror’s Edge’s ethereal ambience or Uncharted 2’s epic globe-trotting score is hardly fair.

Showing that quality rarely matches sales, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars won handheld game of the year despite extremely lack lustre sales when it debuted on DS earlier this year. Similarly, LittleBigPlanet received some much deserved attention with family game of the year.

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The shooter titans went head to head on the console specific awards with Gears of War 2 winning on Xbox 360 and Killzone 2 for Playstation 3. Nintendo game of the year went to the Wii edition of Call of Duty: World at War, which may put a dent in the perception of third party games on Nintendo consoles. PC gamers chose Fallout 3 and the award for mobile game of the year landed on iPhone, with Metal Gear Solid Touch. Left 4 Dead won online game of the year.

The award for UK developer of the year saw a very surprising win. LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule, Fable II’s Lionhead, Grand Theft Auto IV’s Rockstar North and Burnout Paradise’s Criterion were among the nominees, but the award went to Jagex. Based in Cambridge and London, Jagex are the creators of free to play MMO RuneScape, which was recently awarded a Guinness World Record for “most popular free MMO”.

Retailer of the year was awarded to GAME, despite a wide and varied selection on nominees including online portals (such as Amazon and Shopto), supermarkets (such as Tesco and ASDA), digital distribution services (just Steam) and high street locations (such as Gamestation and HMV).

The Ultimate Game of the Year was given to the much deserving Fallout 3; we also gave Fallout 3 (one of four) Game of the Year awards back in 2008.

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Trendsetters

The gaming public, if nothing else, are at least consistent; Fallout 3 went from Golden Joystick 2008’s “Most Wanted” to 2009’s Ultimate Game of the Year and “One to Watch” Call of Duty: World at War scooped up two awards at this year’s awards.

Activision has now won Publisher of the Year twice in a row, following their win last year. This possibly shows a worrying disparity of Activision’s perception by game media followers and the general public. In hiking Modern Warfare 2’s price, running franchises into the ground, introducing peripherals into as many games as possible and dropping games like Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend, Activision has drawn much ire from the gaming community this year.

The UK developer award typically goes for more traditional and recognisable companies such as Rockstar (2008) and Codemasters (2007). While Jagex has been around for 10 years, this may be yet another sign that social experiences and free to play games will play an important role in gaming’s future.

Finally, the mobile category has now moved straight to Apple’s device in the first year that iPhone apps have been made available. Traditional mobile games such as Final Fantasy (2007) and Bejewelled 2 (2008) have been usurped in favour of iPhone’s Metal Gear Solid Touch.

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Preview Feature: Epic Mickey

By Mark Brown | October 29, 2009

Before we start, a quick history lesson – before Mickey Mouse, before Disney became the most important cartoon producer in the world and way before Pixar and 3D, Walt Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; a happy go lucky anthropomorphic who finds himself in the middle of wacky hijinx and mischievous situations.

Oswald the Lucky RabbitWith Oswald’s massive success, Disney asked Universal Studios for better pay and larger budgets, only to be shot down when the movie giant reminded Walt that Oswald was their property and they could go on creating cartoons without Disney’s help. Angry and wanting to create a new character that Universal couldn’t own, Disney went and made, with the help of Ub Iwerks, a little guy named Mickey Mouse.

You don’t need me to tell you which talking animal hero became one of the most recognisable symbols and famous characters in the world, and which one fell out of relevance and importance entirely.

This sets the stage for Epic Mickey; a post modern, self aware and fourth wall shattering experience that pits the famous Mickey Mouse against his embittered, resentful older brother, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (now back in Disney’s grasp thanks to the magic of contract negotiations, some 70 years later). Set within the pages of Disney’s packrat archives, the entire world features slightly twisted and warped takes on Disney’s history of cartoons, theme park rides and all the unfinished cells and unused concept art that Disney couldn’t bear to discard.

This is the Cartoon Wasteland, a post apocalyptic Disney collage that is overseen by two very distinct and imperious entities – the world creating sorcerer, Yen Sid and the game’s creative director, Warren Spector.

Best known for genre blending and progressive PC games like Deus Ex and Thief, Spector has collected a cult like following of devout hardcore gamers. But he’s also an absolute animation buff, whose love for all things Disney is both alarmingly apparent and absolutely infectious. At a crowded studio hall in London, Spector gushes over Disney’s scribbled notes and speaks of pawing over storyboards and cells in the Disney archives like an archaeologist recounting a famous expedition.

Epic Mickey - Lonesome Manor

Paint and Thinner, Hero and Scrapper

The core concept behind Epic Mickey, which blends platforming and adventure with RPG elements, is the difference between using Paint to create and bloom, and using Thinner to destroy and eradicate. By sweeping the Wii Remote like a paint brush, Mickey can restore broken bridges and help friends, or destroy obstacles and eliminate giant parts of the world.

Alongside his magic paintbrush, Mickey also has the power to sketch a number of tools that can help him solve puzzles and deal with tricky situations. “There are exploration tools and ones that modify the situation,” explains Spector, “they all have multiple uses and there are all sorts of emergent behaviour that happens when you use them together.” We are shown a TV that can “distract any living thing” and a watch that can “slow down time.” With this rich palette of tools, Mickey hearkens back to Deus Ex and is given multiple ways to solve every single puzzle, down to avoiding combat altogether and even choosing not to fight the game’s bosses.

Hero MickeyBut like the heroes of Fable and Spector’s previous games, Mickey will have to contend with his ever changing morality and reputation as he continues his adventure and makes decisions. “I don’t want to make Mickey evil” ensured Spector, “but I want a Mickey that can go after his own goals and be really focussed on what he needs, or a Mickey who’s really about helpfulness, friends and family.”

So on one end of the spectrum, Hero, Mickey creates more than he destroys and relies on the powers of his friends and allies for strength and direction. Conversely, “Scrapper” Mickey is destructive and mischievous – he’ll have more personal strength, but won’t have the friendship of the world’s helpful inhabitants. “A character might have told you about a secret entrance, given you a map of the area or told you about a mission, but now they just won’t tell you – they’ll run from you,” explains Spector.

You won’t lose anything though, “I’m not a big believer in taking things away – I think that’s a bad thing,” says Spector, “so it’s not that you lose things, in terms of your core abilities, but you do gain new skills.” Scrapper Mickey will be more powerful and destructive than ever, allowing you to move further down that path and at a faster clip.

Mickey is always able to redeem himself though – able to swing from Scrapper to Hero as the adventure progresses. “I’ve gone both ways,” says Spector, “there are times where I’ve said ‘once you pick your faction you’re done’ and there are times where I’ve let you gone back and forth whenever you want – neither of those really works.” This time it’s possible, but you’re going to have to make a strong commitment to change; “You’ll have to really make a decision, but you’ll be able to recover – the later in the game the tougher it’s going to be because you’re going to have gone further and further towards whichever side you prefer.”

Making sure Mickey is always a hero is important for Spector’s narrative goals. A firm believer in linear narrative, Spector has the story arc figured out, but wants to tell a story with you, not to you – “players tend not to be very good storytellers, but they can shape the narrative in their own personal and significant ways.

Scrapper Mickey“I’ve never done the Grand Theft Warren game and I don’t make Will Wright Sandboxes,” explains Spector, “every player is going to accomplish the same mission goals, but it’s how you get to that goal that’s unique to you. I think that’s the more interesting thing for players.” This is true to the very end of the story; “The world will be saved and Oswald will be redeemed to some extent,” promises Spector, “but who’s there with you at the end? How do they feel about you? Are you going to go out the conquering hero or the guy who rings civilisation to the wilderness but there’s no room for him any more. Are you the lone hero or the beloved saviour?”

“The story is very much about how important family and friend are to you, and do you believe in the possibility of redemption for all things – not to get too pretentious,“ says Spector, “I told myself I was never going to say that publicly.”

Promising an epic tale worthy of Disney’s rich and storied lineage, Warren Spector ensures players “there’s more going on here than ‘save the princess.’”

Epic Mickey is a Wii Exclusive, and will launch in late 2010

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