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Battle of Destiny

9 September, 2008 at 7:22 pm | In blogging | Leave a Comment
Tags: Battle of Destiny, Neoempire, Streetfighter, Tekken

Only a competitive hardcore fighting gaming event could get away with being called the ‘Battle Of Destiny’. A dramatic name like that is reinforced by the actual tournament games they’ve picked out: ‘Capcom versus SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001′, ‘Streetfighter III: Third Strike’, ‘Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection’ and ‘Hyper Street Fighter II Anniversary Edition’.

This attracted lots of hardcore gamers from across Europe, a lot of them wearing self referencing fighting game T-Shirts and carrying their own custom modded arcade sticks with all sorts of colours, buttons and artwork that they used for their tournament games.

The actual area was in the Rocket Centre, the metropolitan University student building. Reinforcing the negative videogame stereotype, most of the rooms were very dark with the display screens being a helpful source of light to navigate your way through the building.

Before each tournament match, the players go through something of a ritual which is akin to martial artists bowing to each other before battle. They go to the options screen, and make sure that their opponent has set all the controls and configurations to their preference. Its almost like a digital shaking of the hands and chanting something along the lines of “may the best man win”.

The really interesting thing about this event was the hype surrounding the grand finals. All of the machines were shut off and we were asked to leave the premises for half an hour. I thought that all of the staff were having a syncronised break, but when we were allowed back into the hall it now resembled a cinema theatre with lots of chairs laid out in long rows, and a grand huge screen displaying the final rounds of the competition, with a beefy sound system to match.

The level of energy and excitement in the room was incredible. Because everyone there was competing or at least knows of Streetfighter and its fighting game kin, the entire crowd would react collectively to someone performing a string of special moves or interesting playing styles.

It was an incredible experience, and I have never seen so many people in a single room who are so into their fighting games than at this event. If you’re a big fan of fighting games, I would definitely recommend it. I know that I’ll definitely be going along to their next event.

Rabid Nintendo fans turn to homebrew

10 July, 2008 at 10:09 pm | In blogging | Leave a Comment
Tags: Goldeneye, homebrew, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Smash Bros

Since the launch of Mario 64 DS and the realisation that it could produce N64 quality 3D graphics, the absence of a Smash Bros game has always been a mystery. It must now be one of its top current franchises, and the arguement of the DS not having an analogue stick is wearing thin as the Wii’s Smash Bros Brawl is playable using the standard Wii mote (with no analogue stick).

Clearly I’m not alone with this, as a Smash Bros DS homebrew game is currently being made.

Whilst on the subject of the fans taking it upon themselves to get what they want, Nintendo’s virtual console on the Wii has been hacked to run a homebrew version of the N64 classic Goldeneye.

Projects like these show how huge the demand is for things like this. Hopefully the game developers out there will do something more productive than simply shutting the projects down.

Rockband – Review (Xbox 360)

3 July, 2008 at 9:33 pm | In reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: Harmonix, Rockband, Xbox 360

For those who know their Guitar Hero history, Rock Band is the latest offering from the original creators of Guitar Hero, Harmonix. Having sold off their precious Guitar Hero IP and now rolling with the big boys over at MTV Games and EA, Rock Band breaks their silence in the only way possible with a rock centric music game. With lots of noise!

Rockband art

If you’ve played Guitar Hero, the basic gameplay of Rock Band should be very familiar: there’s a constant conveyor belt of blocks which are scrolling towards you and by using the correct buttons to hit them in time you’ll find yourself creating a song.

Immediately the first thing that sets Rock Band apart from any other competitors is the inclusion of drums and vocals, and the shift of focus from individuals to a group. The Rock Band instruments are wired guitars, wired drums and a wired mic which all plug in via USB. Fortunately, they come bundled with their own USB hub to cope with the strain of the extra devices you’ll be plugging into your games console. Whether intentional or not, the whole ’spaghetti junction’ of assorted music peripheral cables makes you feel as if you’re performing on stage or having a studio session.

The microphone included is a standard quality USB mic with a nice weight to it. Any USB microphone can be used with Rock Band, or you can use any of the headset adaptors if you want to be a show off and sing whilst strumming on guitar or hitting drums. The singing itself is very similar to Sony’s Singstar games – it detects pitch (sung any octave higher or lower than the original recording if need be) but fails to recognise words or phrases. There are parts of the vocal track where you can give your throat a rest and tap out a rhythm.

Drums are definitely the most refreshing thing about Rock Band and they certainly deliver. As you’d hope to expect from something you’ll be hitting a lot over time, they’re very durable and have thick rubber pads capable of standing even the most enthusiastic drum solos. Its not all indestructible: the foot pedal for the kick drum definitely feels more fragile than the rest of the kit. The pads aren’t velocity sensitive, so hitting them harder or softer has absolutely no difference on the sound you’ll be creating. The drumming snobs out there won’t enjoy that all of the pads are at the same height unlike a real drumkit, but for a videogame peripheral they are absolutely fine.

The Rock Band guitar is a lot bigger than its Guitar Hero counterparts, resembling the size of a real guitar. Aside from the main fret buttons, it has a smaller set of frets lower down the neck of the guitar, which come in handy for those virtuoso solos. Its possible to play the guitar solo sections purely by tapping out the notes on smaller fret buttons, leaving a free hand to fiddle about the special effects on the guitar. You can adjust to have wah wah, flange, chorus, or echo anytime you have a solo or use your star power to really take your guitar performance to the next level.

What really brings Rock Band alive is its multiplayer. The core gameplay really pushes for teamwork, if a fellow bandmate fails during the performance you can revive them if you’ve earnt enough star power by hitting highlighted notes in succession. You also get a bonus if you play notes all in unison, and if you all co-ordinate your star power together you’ll multiply the scores of new notes you hit for a short period.

The Band Tour mode is where you and up to 3 friends can form your band and do a career together. You’ll get given various amount of cash and win fans depending on how well you perform on each song, and later you’ll have the chance to travel to various cities playing new songs. For the musicians who really love to live on the edge, you’ll occasionally be offered a double or nothing bet on the condition you play a set of songs to a certain level.

Because you can’t always be surrounded by your bandmates, the solo career gives a chance to play through the song sets at your own pace with your instrument of choice. This gives you an opportunity to unlock the songs for quick play sessions later. As a solo musician, you can also go online and challenge other people at your chosen discipline in the tug of war mode, which sees you and a competitor take turns to play different sections of a song, or you can choose to do a score battle which has both of you playing an entire song to see who ends up with the overall highest score. In the interests of fairness, you can’t do any versus modes against other instruments, though it would have been interesting to see a drummer and a guitarist go head to head.

One thing Rock Band has going for it is a very strong song selection. There’s plenty for all in the standard song set, such as Foo Fighters, Garbage, Radiohead, Bon Jovi, Nirvana, Muse, Weezer, etc. Sadly the bonus songs are really weak and lack the charm from previous Guitar Hero games. Speaking of previous Guitar Hero games, some old favourites return in true multi-part Rock Band form such as Jet’s “Are you Gonna Be My Girl” and The Killers “When You Were Young”. The online music store for Rock Band is fully integrated into the game – no invasive Xbox blades popping up required! Downloaded songs will seamlessly appear in the band career mode, making that much more than a traditional tacked on extra like they have been in previous Guitar Hero games.

Rock Band Screenshot

There’s a high level of presentation in Rock Band, and lots of subtle touches such as the translucent conveyor belt of notes during the main game and special visual effects during different parts of the songs. The characters in the game have a very cartoon-like crisp character models, but everything is under a grainy fuzzy filter.

The most negative thing I can say about Rock Band should be obvious to anyone who’s seen it in a high street shop: the price is something you could practically put a mortgage on, at launch a complete set up is fetching the same price as a brand new games console! Gameplay wise, the songs are not as challenging compared to Guitar Hero III, which may disappoint those virtuoso players looking for a dragonforce level of difficulty.

If you’re a fan of music games, particularly Guitar Hero, then Rock Band truly is a worthwhile purchase. The single player modes as different instruments will keep you busy for a long time, and jamming along with likeminded individuals as a group really is something you’ll get your money’s worth out of. Besides, whats more Rock and Roll than making an extravagant purchase?

9/10

The Demise of the Sound Test

3 July, 2008 at 9:19 pm | In editorial | Leave a Comment
Tags: 16 bit, 8 bit, sound test

Perhaps its something to do with games becoming more complicated and professional, but the sound test is a feature which has not weathered the progress of game development.

It was never something as practical as adjusting brightness, or screen resolution but it certainly had its own charm. I can’t think of any practical situation where a sound test would be required to solve a problem.

Basic Sound Test

And yet, there was something incredibly liberating about playing any sound or theme from a video game at will. With an audience the sound test became a very valuable tool in providing some extra enjoyment from a game. Naturally, it lent itself to comical miming of badly sampled speech or perhaps some other sound effects for an impromptu performance inspired by the bunch of chimes, cracks, and bleeps.

For the more committed sound testers out there, it was entirely possible to make a drum loop out of explosions, impacts and other violent noises. This was something that I took immense pleasure in, and there was a live, almost acoustic quality in making these from just using a menu.

There’s also something to be said about the type of games which offered a sound test. The ones which I fondly remember are a pedigree of the hardcore games on my youth: Contra, Streetfighter, Castlevania, R-Type, etc.

As the quality of sound in games improved, the novelty of the sound test waned. Something as simple as laughing at a Mega Drive’s murky attempts at recreated sampled speech (even the groans of some poor enemy getting punched in the face) would be confined to the 16-bit consoles.

My most recent experience of playing with the sound test was with Super Smash Bros Melee. The sound test for this game was only offered as a reward for unlocking everything else in the game, and this was a welcome reward. The type of gamer who would complete the game inside out is probably someone who would appreciate having a wealth of Nintendo samples and music available to play with.

The novelty of a sound test will always be something I’ll appreciate. Its something which is not included in the new games on the market, but I will always have fond memories of playing about with random sounds for fun from the 16-bit era.

Sonic Adventure DX retrospective

3 July, 2008 at 9:03 pm | In editorial | Leave a Comment
Tags: Dreamcast, Gamecube, Sonic, Sonic Adventure DX

Perhaps its the more recent news stories of the upcoming Sonic Unleashed or the huge announcement of Sonic as a confirmed character in Smash Bros Brawl, but I’ve been really wanting to replay through the original Sonic Adventure. I originally had Sonic Adventure International on import for my Japanese Dreamcast when I first played it nearly a decade ago. Its not the most polished game around, but there’s something about it that makes it one of my favourite games.

I had so much love for this game that I even got the Gamecube re-release of it in 2003, and it was great to play the game on a good controller with a decent analogue stick, and the way it linked up to the GBA instead of the Dreamcast’s VMU made much more sense.

Sonic Adventure DX

The music selection in this game was so jaunty and light hearted. It had a shamelessly cheesy 80’s style Rock theme tune which wouldn’t seem at all out of place as a dream Guitar Hero bonus track. It even featured a embarrassing classic 1990’s rap track with Knuckles’ rap (“You can call me Knuckles/Unlike Sonic I don’t chuckle) and a frantic Drum n Bass theme to the twisting death trap of the Sky Deck stage.

What I liked about the game apart from the (at the time) incredible graphics and sense of speed was the story. Or to more specific I really enjoyed the narrative of the story. It sounds like a gimmick, but the way each of the 6 playable characters had their own interweaving stories really reinforced and gave integrity to what should have been a standard throwaway videogame plot.

We saw Tails’ struggle to branch out and become independent of Sonic, Knuckles journey as he tried to secure the shards of the Master Emerald, Amy’s constant escape from Eggman’s robot Zero, and E102 Gamma’s discovery of morals and conscience.

The level design in this game has some suprising depth as you replay it to get more of the Sonic Emblems. Its satisfying when you have to use creative solutions as you skip chunks of the levels in order to meet the harsh speed run time requirements. This brought a mild cerebral element to the fast platforming gameplay.

For a game which is coming up to a decade old now, its still fun to play. It marked a milestone in Sonic’s videogame career as he made the inevitable jump into 3D platforming, but for me, it also proves that satisfying 3D Sonic games are capable of being produced.

Portal.

1 June, 2008 at 11:13 pm | In blogging | Leave a Comment
Tags: Half Life 2, Orange Box, Portal, Xbox 360

I’ve recently had a chance to play through the Half Life 2 Orange Box. Although the compilation is incredible value, the stand out game in the package must be Portal.

Portal Logo

Sometimes its easy to forget that FPS genre still has a lot to offer us, what with it being utterly flooded by developers climbing over each other to make The Next Big Shooter. What I really loved about Portal is that, its not even a shooter. Its a puzzle game that simply happens to use the Half Life 2 Engine.

Portal stands for so many good gameplay values.

Its accessible:there’s a very well thought out learning curve.
Its not too long: the developers didn’t decide to flesh out the concept by forcing you through needless plot and cutscenes that you don’t really care for.
You can choose to do bonus levels:as production costs rise, we are seeing the decline of genuine bonus content that rewards dedicated gamers as companies want everyone to be able to play through their hard work. Portal offers bonus missions which are really challenging and force you to find drastic solutions to increasingly complicated problems.

Its also interesting to note that I’ve really been so moved by this game, that I’m even badgering all of my friends to play it. Yes, it really is that good.

Play Portal.

Mariokart Wii – Review (Wii)

1 June, 2008 at 10:45 pm | In reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: Kart, Mario, Mariokart, Racing, Wii

Its hard to believe it, but Mariokart is old. The franchise has been going for over 15 years since its debut on the Super Nintendo, and its seen many incarnations as its graced various Nintendo consoles. The hardware available has always dictated the series direction, from the N64’s four controller ports making multiplayer more accessible, to the DS’s wireless capabilities taking Mariokart online for the first time. As you’d expect from the hardware available, the Wii version makes use of the motion sensing controllers and the wireless online play.

The established mixture of a racing game and party game is still very much present, but there are some subtle indications that this game’s direction is hinting at being more of a racer. Gone are the character specific battle items, and instead they’re replaced by increasing ways to give you a speed boost and get a good racing line.

Mariokart Wii Screenshot 1

Now more than ever, its really important to get a good racing line as the amount of karts on the race track have risen from 8 to 12. The new tracks, full of gentle turns and wide straights can fully accommodate this, but the retro tracks seem much more cramped. The selection of retro tracks themselves are slightly controversial as Nintendo have opted to revive an entire new selection of courses from previous Mariokart games. What this means is that fond classics like the frantic Baby Park from Double Dash have been ditched in favour of the N64’s icy Sherbert Land (complete with annoying penguins and icy chasms).

The new tracks are colourful and original. For the first time there’s an Autumn forest course, lit up by a golden sunset where you have to dodge falling leaves and navigate through hollowed out half pipes of tree trunks. The whole half pipe mechanic is something that crops up in a lot of the courses now, as a shake of the Wii mote in mid air performs a stunt and boosts you as you land. Stunts are also rewarded with speed if you perform a wheelie by pulling back on the Wii mote while you’re racing on a bike. Although this gives you a brief speed boost, you can only make minute adjustments to your steering and the slightest nudge from another player will make you lose a lot of speed.

Mariokart Screenshot 2

The online mode of Mariokart Wii is implemented very well. Its very easy to find a race, and there’s rarely lag when you race with the other players. The option to challenge time trial records in the form of other player’s ghosts fuels an active time trialling community, and you can even watch the replays of the world’s best racers to learn the best racing lines and shortcuts. The major problems with the online mode of Mariokart are more universal with Nintendo rather than this game: there’s no voice chat, making it that bit less personal (and satisfying) and the friend code system makes it overly complicated to race with your friends.

The split screen multiplayer racing is sound, but the way the game defaults to races of with a minimum of 8 computer racers really interferes with the traditional party feel of Mariokart. You can switch them off, but then the huge race courses seem to really stretch out a little too far for just 4 people. This type of subtle imbalance really affects Mariokart and does a lot to lose its appeal as a pick up and play party racing game. Admittedly these are small gripes and aren’t anything that you’ll get used to over time. Unlike the monstrosity of the battle mode.

Mariokart Wii Battle Mode Screenshot

The Mariokart Battle mode: home of some of the most tense rivalries ever waged in console gaming history. There’s nothing like fighting to be the last man standing in balloon battle. It was a fantastic way to instantly prove who’s better at the weapons side of Mariokart without forcing everyone to learn every race course. In Mariokart Wii, this is not possible. Nintendo’s inexplicable decision to force players into two teams is a curious one: turning their backs on what must have been Mariokarts major selling points. Being forced into teams seriously damages the battle mode experience, but it doesn’t fundamentally break it like the other new feature: you can no longer die. If all of your balloons get burst, you’ll respawn and give away some points to the opposing team. The Balloons are now just there for decoration, its all about points.

Its very hard to list all the reasons why, but Mariokart Wii is definitely missing that familiar spark that establishes it as a great game. Its an ok game, and thats the problem – its definitely the weakest of all the Mariokarts yet, which is such as shame as its most recent Mariokart installment on the DS was probably the strongest. Proceed with caution: people searching for a fun racing game will enjoy it, but those who know what to expect from a Mariokart game will be disappointed.

7/10

Xbox 360 doesn’t like Parties

1 June, 2008 at 10:24 pm | In blogging | Leave a Comment
Tags: Army of two, Clan, COD4, FPS, Halo 3, Xbox 360

I recently went along to an Xbox 360 LAN party with some of my friends. We brought along a few Xbox 360 consoles, controllers and games and even some headsets. The plan was to hook a few Xbox consoles up to a few tv’s around the house and to play some system link multiplayer games.

Setting up the equipment was pretty straightforward; it was setting up the games which actually proved a difficult task.

Army of Two

The first game we decided to play in multiplayer was Army of Two. After going through the menu’s on the game and reading the instruction manual, we discovered that this game has no system link option! In order to play each other, we had to connect to the internet, host a private online match over Xbox live and have the other team – only a few precious metres away – join the private match. It was also irritating that, because it was over the internet, we had to piggyback off someone else’s gamertag. Considering Army of Two is such a co-op themed game, you’d have thought that the developers would make it as easy as possible to do have system link setups!

Gears of War

Gears of War was refreshingly fun to play for a title which is approaching 2 years old. The graphics still look incredible, and the tactical cover dynamic still hasn’t really been bettered by any of the more recent Xbox 360 games. As a party game, like Army of Two, there’s only a maximum of 2 people per console so after a few games on rotation we decided to get everyone involved in another game famous for its multiplayer…

Halo 3

I’d never realised how flexible Halo 3 truly was until this event. At this time of night our group had petered out to just 5 people, and we had 2 people on one Xbox and 3 people on the other console. After Gears and Army of Two this was something short of a revelation to have so many people playing at one given time. I’d also never realised how much fun could be had by watching the saved replays of our matches as we provided running commentary while viewing our performances of team deathmatch on high ground.

Call of Duty 4

And then there was the grand finale, Call of Duty 4. This is currently the favourite Xbox live multiplayer game of choice, and we were really anticipating some system link action. COD4 split screen is fun enough by itself, but the whole idea of having teams in different rooms battle it out like we’d just did with Halo nearly made us salivate. But to our horror, we discovered that COD4 has possibly the most gimped system link ever seen – it will only let 1 person play per console. The frustrating thing is that we know a single Xbox 360 can handle 4 people split screen. This was a huge disappointment, and slightly reluctantly we went back to some 3 v 2 Halo 3 matches.

The Final Word…

System link games when they’re done right can really make for some of the most fun console experiences. I find the best type of system link experiences are ones that combine traditional split screen multiplayer and the modern multiplayer climate of squad based FPS’s: your room vs another room. Its the way you can talk to someone else without using a ridiculous headset; the way you can even see someone else’s screen on your team to help co-ordinate your attacks and strategies and knowing somewhere in your network, there’s a bunch of people doing exactly the same thing. For me, thats the type of social gaming best suited to the Xbox and its available games. As it stands right now, it would seem that video games developers couldn’t care less for this setup.

No More Heroes – Review (Wii)

7 May, 2008 at 10:57 pm | In reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: No More Heroes, Suda 51, Wii

Whats the first image that creeps into your mind when you picture an assassin? Is it a man in a suit, probably wearing dark glasses and wielding a ranged weapon like a silenced pistol or sniper rifle? Chances are, it won’t be an Otaku guy in jeans, anime t-shirt and jacket, wearing sunflower glasses wielding a Star Wars inspired ‘Beam Katana’. Unless you’re Suda 51, the quirky creator of such twisted and dark games like Killer 7.

No More Heroes is about making this protagonist, Travis Touchdown, become the number one ranked assassin in the country. Fortunately for him all of the other higher ranked assassins reside in his hometown of Santa Destroy, a city mainly populated by thugs, drifters and other people who are basically fodder for your rampage as you hack and slash your way to your goal. Along the way you’ll meet rival assassins as outrageous as yourself, such as the delivery boy turned super villain, or cheerleader who hits people with a burning baseball bat.

In the right hands, the trusty Beam Katana can make short work of the many enemies you’ll encounter, reducing them to nothing as your poor victims explode into dust, bizarrely releasing a shower of coins. If this wasn’t odd enough, killing an enemy also activates a roulette wheel which will could unleash the “dark side” mode. This mode will make you do things like instant fatalities on enemies or go into a first person perspective as you shoot bolts of energy at your unsuspecting foes with each swing.

Travis slicing things up

The actual combat itself is very intuitive – there’s a button to slice with the Beam Katana, a button to melee your opponents and a button to block. The Wii mote is subtly used – holding it upright or down facing towards the screen makes high or low attacks respectively. When you’ve worn down an enemy, a swing with the Wii mote at the prompt will execute a finishing move. The Wii mote and Nunchuk are also used in tandem to perform a variety of wrestling moves which Travis also has at his disposal.

The city of Santa Destroy is free to explore as an open world as Travis rides around on his turbo powered bike. Don’t be fooled by an mini map in the corner of the screen and the fact that you’re allowed to drive everywhere in the city: this is a world away from being a GTA clone. Nevermind the fact that you can’t interact with pedestrians or other cars, the choppy framerate and wild amounts of pop up make it genuinely look like an N64 game.

Perhaps its not the most satisfying part of the game, but at least the open world sections act as a hub connecting you to a variety of shops and other places. The clothes shop, Area 51 lets you kit out Travis in memorable clothes such as a pink T-Shirt boldly exclaiming “You say Psycho like its a bad thing!”, blood stained grey jeans and snake skin belts. You can also travel to the gym, where you can increase your life meter and strength through short energetic bouts with the motion sensing controllers.

Travis on bike

Although Travis is a hitman, hes not above taking menial jobs to help raise funds for things like cool clothes and a gym membership. You can opt to do such side quests as coconut collecting, cat rescue and lawn mowing to earn some pocket money. There’s benefit you more than earning some cash, they’ll also unlock some sinister assassination side missions.

Visually this game has a very striking shadowy cell shaded art style, giving everything a rather edgy graphic novel look to it. The presentation in general will be a delight to anyone who has plays retro games, as a recurring theme of 8 bit chimes and pixel art crop up during Travis’ adventure.

Its not a 40 hour romping epic, but this is a game that will keep you busy for a reasonable amount of time. The open world section has a sensible amount of collectibles to find (later in the game you can get a radar to help you) and there are some super hard 1-hit kill battle modes to unlock and fight through for the gamer who loves to push the boundaries.

As a Wii exclusive title, this is certainly worth trying out. There’s simply nothing else on the console that offers the interesting visuals, quirky story and bizarre humour. Its by no means perfect; the open world sections let the game down, the fighting doesn’t massively develop and the general tone will not be to everyone’s taste. But if you can see past that, this is without doubt one of the Wii’s underrated gems of gaming.

8/10

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