Cures for the Gaming Blues - Some forthcoming releases

With the recent nonsense surrounding Mass Effect 3 and the series' indomitable 'fans', my cynicism for big budget games has started to reach dangerous levels. The blame for this rubbish without doubt falls across the board as the self-righteous ME fan's disillusionment is surely only encouraged by the growing incomprehensibility of the games publishing industry. Crippling DRM and unashamedly flagrant DLC have naturally worn down gamers and their response seems to have come in the form of miscalculated rage, which is, I guess, understandable. But with all these issues now clouding the general excitement and fantasy which game releases once inspired, it's worth turning to smaller games which, not without grand ambition, have managed to exist without all the marketing politics which now plague the colossal budgeted 'AAA' games.

Here are four forthcoming games which are looking pretty inspiring:

Dragon's Dogma OXM preview video

From Software's recent forays into the RPG showed that a little Japanese hardcore-ness can do wonders for the traditionally Western open-world fantasy RPG. This video from OXM shows that Capcom's upcoming open-worlder could be similarly invigorating. Seemingly lacking a fast travel option (this of course doesn't discount the obligatory mechanic showing up later in the game), there is an overall sense of danger and atmosphere which, if the Souls games taught us anything, can do wonders when becoming immersed in a game. The presenter's promise of depth to the 'pawn' mechanic also sounds great (if the game manages to deliver). I love the idea that the player will essentially be able to build their own party - if anything this reminds me more of Balders Gate than Elder Scrolls. 

Unlike the Dark Souls, whose open-world was almost wholly inhabited by baddies, Dragon's Dogma looks a tad more human. However I am excited by the idea of a truly challenging world to explore - the woods, while the video shows us little actual exploration, look both inviting and terrifying. Weirdly I'm most excited by the prospect of being caught short and having to run through the pitch black night with zombies on my tracks! Its an exciting propsect for what originally looked like a pretty standard RPG. 

Put simply Dragon's Dogma looks pretty great! Heres the video courtesy of OXM

Review: Vessel

Here's a review of the excellent Vessel I wrote for the website Rhythm Circus:

The Puzzle-Platformer genre has seen something of a renaissance in recent years. Thanks  to gaming platforms such as Steam, PSN Store and XBLA, these games  have found themselves a suitable home where they can gain a measure of success outside the money throwing competitions of the established games industry. Starting from the relatively simple design concept of the platform game many of these Indie titles have developed far beyond the realm of simplicity, with devs exploring new aesthetics and experimenting with game mechanics. Vessel, the first game developed by Strange Loop Games - a small developer based in Seattle - marks a strong step towards a grander aesthetic within the genre while still keeping experimentation close to its heart.

2 RPGs available to Download

A very quick blog:

I've just found out that two classic RPGs (both with suitably silly names) are available to download on PC so I thought I'd let everyone know!

First, which was released yesterday, is Ys: The Oath Felghana. It's a remake of Ys III in 3D and looked amazing on the PSP version released a couple of years ago. It's got a pretty standard plot but the gameplay is brilliant. It's much more action packed then many JRPGs and involves much platforming and button mashing. Great fun. I think that I'm going to wait for it either to come down in price - as things tend to do on Steam - or buy it next month. I'm really looking forward to replaying this game.

The second game, available on GOG, is the under-rated West meets East turn-based RPG, Anachronox. The turn-based combat was an unlikely model for an RPG developed by Ion Storm but it works perfectly well. The characters and story are incredible, the setting is bizarre and epic, and the dialogue is amazing! This is a game which I actually kind of forgot about until today, but I'm really looking forward to re-playing what I remember to be an incredibly fun RPG.  

The Good, The Bad, The Jaffe

After nearly a month of sweat, dust and strong whiskey I can finally hang my boots up and call it a day with Rock Star San Diego's epic Wild Western Red Dead Redemption. It's been a long emotional journey across a dynamic and utterly spell binding landscape. The characters along the way have been just as memorable and the story has not only been exciting and deep in its own right but has also been a tale shot through with clever references and knowing nods to the dying West of Peckinpah and Leone. A thoughtful and exemplary videogame, but one which is also incredibly 'cinematic'. It's hard not to play this game without noticing the long shadow of cinema creeping across nearly every facet of Red Dead. This filmic quality is not a criticism and is partly the reason why this game is so successful, but it also points out the problems which the game faces.

It was interesting to listen to David Jaffe's speech at DICE 2012 whilst being in the midst of my romance with Red Dead. Jaffe's talk, whilst slightly meandering, seemed to come upon something important. What I understood from Jaffe's argument was that game developers - and publishers - were focusing too much upon telling stories through the medium and not enough on the mechanics of actual gameplay. So, while millions of dollars are being ploughed into developing the visual element of videogames the actual gameplay hasn't actually developed much since the nineties. While Jaffe's speech may have seemed (as it did to me at first) to deride videogame story altogether (his off the cuff comments about videogames being a rubbish story telling medium surely didn't help him), I don't think this was in fact the purpose of the talk. Instead he seemed to be saying that games need to focus on developing the gameplay rather than only focusing on the often non-interactive narrative and visual appearance.

Gaming Report: Feb and Beyond!

This month, in terms of videogames, has mostly been about completing Red Dead Redemption. It's been pretty epic and I'm feeling a bit lost now that it's over - but it had to be done. My mounting backlog is starting to feel a bit oppressive. Steam is particularly to blame for me buying unnecessary games. This month I picked up Braid, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, Freedom Force and its sequel, and Cthulhu Saves The World with Breath of Death IV. Along with this I reclaimed some old PC games which belonged to my brother when he was younger. I'm not sure whether they will all work on a Windows 7 laptop (I'm not sure I want to play them all to be honest - god knows why he bought Salt Lake Winter Olympics 2002) but there are some real classics here.

I booted up Deus Ex and that seems to work great - I've got right back into capping fools with the dart gun. The best of these games are probably: Homeworld: Cataclysm, SWAT3, Theme Hospital (I don't think this'll work), GTA3, Outcast and Star Trek: Elite Force. I'm quietly excited about  replaying Elite Force. This was a massive game for me as a kid. I was, to say the least, a little obsessed with Voyager and the promise of shooting Borg while cracking wise with Tom Paris was like a dream come true (in FPS form). If I remember rightly the game was actually pretty good - which is surprising for a Star Trek game. Working solely from memory I think there was a good variety of weapons and enemy types - and I think a half decent story. It was developed by Raven Software too which is promising. Anyway I'm hoping it'll install and run fine, then I'll report back on how it goes.

With the release of Mass Effect 3 coming up pretty soon I thought I'd play through the first two games in an attempt to hype myself up for the third game. I've said this a thousand times to my increasingly beleaguered friends, but I've never really connected to the ME series. This always seemed incongruous to my general interested - Sci-fi, Rpg, Bioware, etc.- so I'm determined to recap on the series and see whether I enjoy it more another time around. This is perhaps also an attempt to regain my grip on current game releases. Last year I found that I inextricably missed some great games when they were first released. Skyrim slipped past and I still haven't bought the game or even played a single hour of the 'Game of last year'. Similarly Portal 2 pasted without me picking it up, and only with coming of January did I finally buy and play the game (needless to say it was fantastic). Hopefully by forcing myself to enjoy Mass Effect I will be able to jump on Mass Effect 3 and subsequently feel more contemporary. Unfortunately I also realised that Freespace 1&2 are up on gog.com meaning that my I'm back to the old. As always too many games, too little spare time (too heavier a conscience).  

Freespace 2

Black Mesa Revisited - Re-reviewing Half-Life

Throughout my life as a man (previously a boy) interested in videogames I have invariably tried to come up with some form of Top Games list in my head. While this list tends to change with every interesting new game I play, or every forgotten gem I'm randomly reminded of,  one game in particular has tended to stay the course and has become my go-to answer if I am ever asked. Half-life is a game which I have cemented in my haphazard brain as a true great. Like Citizen Kane to the AFI, Half-Life is my inevitable answer to the question: what is your favourite game? But, the problem with this answer is that unlike several other personal favourites such as Monkey Island 2, Okami or Thief, I haven't actually played Half-Life in a very long time. So when I answer in a suspiciously robotic tone, I am also asking myself: Is this really the case or am I just avoiding a long period of silence while I rifle through all the games I've ever played?  

The thing is, while Half-Life is often brought up as an incredibly important game in the history of the FPS genre - making aesthetic and gameplay innovations which still have influence now - and is often placed high on published lists, it was also a game which genuinely had a huge affect on me as a youngster. I was 11 when it was released in 1998 and with a mind for violence and guns Half-Life struck me as something both visceral and sophisticated. From the instantly iconic opening I was hooked and became determined to traverse all the weird puzzles and scatty AI the game could throw at me. I found everything about it enthralling - the sound of changing weapons, the voice of the HEV suit, crow baring headcrabs, playing cat and mouse with the military and making jumps which seemed almost impossible - Half-Life was a game which enveloped me and many other gamers with its mysterious, labyrinthine trip through its crumbling research facility. For an awkward young boy Black Mesa was the place to be. But since my obsession with the game early on in life I haven't gone back to it for nearly 8 years. So, with the recent purchase of a working laptop I decided to throw nostalgia to the wind and re-play this 'favourite' game of mine.

Freeware Love: Treasure Adventure Game

They say nothing in life is free. Nothing, that is, except freeware! Over the years I've downloaded my fair share of free games with often little to no expectation for satisfying or memorable game play. Once in a while though you find a game which, whilst developed with a nonexistent budget and released for free, is in fact as good as any retail game. Games such as Spelunky and Digital: A Love Story proved that freeware games can be deep, immersive experiences in which production values have no rightful place and where personal creativity is king. I recently came across a freeware game called Treasure Adventure Game which proved to be just such a game.

The Tiny Bang Story

I downloaded this quaint puzzler thanks to it being very cheap on Steam the other day and found it to be enjoyable if a bit too subdued. First of all the game looks very pretty and its calm, peaceful hand-drawn backdrops perfectly encapsulate the atmosphere which pervades this very short adventure. This atmosphere is perhaps best described as a serene daydream. The game's music equally keeps this sleepy mood up. Plucked guitars, tinkling bells and soft synths make sure that whilst you solve the game's relatively meagre puzzles you never  feel pressured to stay awake. Even the narrative, which involves you rebuilding a tiny planet after the eponymous Bang shatters it, is utterly devoid of the usual immediacy which games trash their players with. In fact its quietly refreshing to be able to play a game at your own pace. There is no urgency to the puzzles and rebuilding the shattered planet seems to hardly matter to the planet's lethargic population. This means that when playing the game I was never stressed about puzzle solving and was able to enjoy experimentation in a relaxed mood.

Greenvale Revisited: Engagement and Playabitlity in Deadly Premonition

Playing games these days can often be like indulging in amphetamines. It’s not uncommon for specific moments to rush past and get lost in the endless hours which themselves pass within seconds. Nights of playing Halo Reach slip by in a psychedelic scree slope of death and victory. Death is quick but the respawn is just as instantaneous. Digital figures zip between and over shimmering purple structures. And you either struggle to keep up, or swing the disembodied gun, through a flick of the thumb, and watch as the stick-man enemy flips and collapses.

Recently I departed on a trip entirely different from that of Reach’s kaleidoscope of death – and from that of many other recent videogames (for one reason or another). To say that this trip was into an open-world wouldn’t amount to much - for who hasn’t been enjoying the open-world game recently (what with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Arkham City recently being released) – but nevertheless this open-world remains unique. Its distinctiveness is initially discernable as an unexpected flashback to the textures of the Play Station 2 era. Grass looks like blurry sandpaper, textures pop-in irregularly, and all the characters have a somewhat unnerving quality to them – mostly down to their swaying bodies and uncomfortable twitches.