Crikey!

Okay, so we’ve all been a bit lax here at AG and haven’t put a post up for about 2 weeks. Shame on us!

So what have I been up to? Well, I’ve now fully moved house and have got myself a much faster internet connection – perfect for (allegedly) lag-free gaming!

I’ve got a few MS points saved for The Passing DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 (and the as-yet-unnamed DLC for Left 4 Dead which ties in with it), and I’ve been saving the pennies for Lost Planet 2, Crackdown 2, Super Street Fighter IV, and Green Day Rock Band, all of which are out in the next few months.

Of course, later this year I also have Brink, Halo: Reach and Call of Duty 7 (yeah, I’ll give it a shot I reckon) to look forward to. Then there’s E3 in June, which, if rumours are right, should see the announcement of Gears of War 3, something which I’m very much looking forward to. Also, there’ll be some Natal stuff which I’ll probably ignore and wish there were more games with guns and swearing in them. A great year for gaming, not such a great year for my wallet!

In an effort to make this post worthwhile (and give it a decent length), I’ll mention how much I love the videos posted by The Angry Video Game Nerd and Zero Punctuation.

For those unaware, The Angry Video Game Nerd (played by James Rolfe) gives reviews of retro games from the 80s (and sometimes earlier), but from a modern perspective – re-living some of the joys and frustrations of the games from the past. James is also an amateur film-maker and also reviews movies and board games. His other work can also be found on his website, Cinemassacre.com.

Zero Punctuation (by Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw) gives us a typically British, super-cynical (and hilarous) review of modern games. Barely pausing for breath, Yahtzee gives us a speedy yet wordy and altogether unique point of view on modern games. Yahtzee also has his own blog at FullyRamblomatic.com.

These two never fail to amuse me with their videos – I suggest you check them out too!

Games vs Homework

Okay, so I’ve not been a student for a good four years now, and yet I’m still annoyed when I read yet more media scare-mongering regarding video games and studies. The latest round of accusations comes from this article, which details a recent study by Denison University in Ohio.

The study involved 64 families with young boys, each of which were promised a PlayStation 2 (or PlayStation II if you’re in the Roman Empire or are out of touch with reality) and three games if they participated.

While the study is reasonably realistic about the effects – Richard Taylor, an official for the Entertainment Software Association, a Washington, D.C. trade group for video game makers states that “the authors themselves note that they are not sure the effect would exist after four months” – the article in question does try and fan the flames a little with it’s snide opening paragraph:

“Parents who fear that buying a video game system will hurt their kids’ schoolwork might be right.”

Give me a break. Admittedly, it’s not the Daily Express’s level of childishness (“Let’s start a moral crusade and take it to the Prime Minister!”), but it’s still trying to wind up the readers for the sake of a ‘good’ story at the expense of the video game industry. Without wanting to repeat my previous rant about how the media alleviate the blame from bad parents and place it squarely on the shoulders of video games, it just shows how narrow-minded the media are. This is nothing new, however, given that before video games existed there were plenty of other things to blame, but it does wind me up when the topic of blame is as close to home as this.

If parents refuse to regulate their children’s activities and help encourage them to perform better, then of course their education will suffer! I certainly played more than the average child in that study (40 minutes a day on average), and I did alright – I got myself a degree and am now a graphic designer. I’m certainly not sitting behind a counter at McDonalds or cleaning floors.

Toy Soldiers Review: Pushing Tower Defence to the Next Trenchline

I’ve always been a fan of tower defence games, many hours dedicated to beating my friends top scores on countless different versions of the addictive strategy game. Tower defence is simple, hold of waves of enemies by placing turrets to destroy them before they reach your base. The biggest problem with tower defence games is that they can become repetitive, slow and boring often leaving players watching the screen as the towers slowly whittle the enemies health away.

Toy Soldiers is the first arcade game released as part of the Xbox House Party event and is available for a mere 1200 MSP. At first glance Toy Soldiers incorporates basic tower defence elements into the period of history rarely touched upon in games. Attacking the trenches of WWI, players will take control of British and German toy miniatures as they storm across the battlefields of famous historic locations. The player will drop immobile units on each level that will destroy the attacking waves of enemies before they reach your toy box. Destroying enemy units earns the player money which can be spend on repairing, purchasing and upgrading existing towers.

Toy Soldiers is a game in a game

Toy Soldiers takes tower defence to a new level, allowing players to “possess” his units and jump into the action destroying the enemies, earning combos and earning additional cash to help with further waves. The player is also granted vehicles, aircraft and towers that only he can use which can swiftly turn an outnumbered situation into an advantage. This increases the action players are exposed to and allows the environments to immerse its audience.

The campaign itself consists of around 10 levels, but offers both a British and German perspective on each battlefield. With all recent games additional achievements have been placed throughout the game in the form of goals for each level creating a sense of repeatability and gives players bonuses to aim for. With Multiplayer also supplied, Toy Soldiers has covered every base an arcade title would hope to, and potentially set the base for future titles from now on. I found myself impressed with the depth and graphics for such a cheap arcade title and would happily recommend this to anyone looking to pick up a cheap game with some great character.

Coping without T’internet

I’ve been a bit quiet lately due to a house-move which has left me without an internet connection (aside from the one at my office). It made me realise just how reliant I’ve become on the humble internet to get my gaming fix – something which, when I thought about it, I found rather odd, given that when I first got into gaming it was well before the internet became commonplace.

When I spent my first night ‘unplugged’, I became a little worried that I’d be left behind in the world of multiplayer; people would increase in rank before me, leaving me to play catch-up, and I’d be left playing the ‘noob’ while I figured out how to play the game online. Who will know (or even care) if I’ve unlocked any achievements in that time?! My gamerscore is effectively null and void for the time that my Xbox sits offline. Oh teh noes!!! Of course, I realise this is all trivial stuff in the big bad world, but it’s nice to be connected to friends online while gaming.

It’s a bit of an annoying time for it to happen, too, what with Aliens vs Predator recently being released, and Bad Company 2 last Friday. It did get me thinking, how did we manage back in the days before online gaming? I seem to remember clocking up a lot of hours in my childhood playing games with no internet in sight. What happened to those days?

I guess the phrase “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” is relevant here. I do often take the internet for granted, both in terms of gaming and in other aspects – being a web/graphic designer, the Internet is a big part of my job – it’s become so deeply integrated into my life that I almost don’t notice it’s there.

I’m making it sound like it’s all doom and gloom and I couldn’t even possibly consider playing a game without the internet – not true, it’s just a shame I’ll miss out on a few outings with the guys online I guess. It has allowed me to spend a fair bit of time with the single player campaign in Bad Company 2, and I’m having a whale of a time with it (even if I’m somewhere between rubbish and abysmal at it).

At least the boys in Team Gash will have my back when I eventually do get back online! (Well, they say they will at least…)

Xbox Live House Party

Microsoft promotes a month of arcade games; but will this lead to a new trend in the games industry?

Arcade games have been on the rise since the release of the Xbox360 in 2005 but only a few titles have been able to breach the abyss of success in the market. This has shifted over the past year with titles like Castle Crashers, Battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex and Splosion Man. It should also be noted that games companies have started to favour small development teams which reduce development costs but still return a healthy profit on the investment. The problem with triple A titles is the attached cost, but arcade titles require smaller budgets and makes it easier to scrap projects.

The house party collection consists of 3 different titles and Microsoft’s retro arcade room, coming in at a healthy 3200 Microsoft points which for the average British gamer is £27.20. Games will be released in weekly intervals starting with Toy Soldiers on March 3rd, followed by Scrap Metal, Perfect Dark and finally the arcade room. For gamers who pick up the collection before the end of March, Microsoft will be offering a 400 point rebate and a month of Xbox Live for existing gold members. Microsoft are also offering a free avatar prop for everyone who downloads a trial of each game by the end of March, a real attempt to coerce people to try the games.

I’ll be picking up each of the arcade games over the month, and dropping a review for each game but you can join in too! What are your views on arcade games? How many games have you played a trial and progressed to paying to unlock the full game? Post your comments below.

Guns, Games and, er, Games.

Since the crew here at AG have been a bit quiet this past week (Real Life™ strikes again, unfortunately), I’m making up for it today with a second post! Quite a few things have gone on in the previous seven days which have caught my attention, so I’ll give you a little round-up. Here goes…

While waiting for the imminent release of Aliens vs Predator and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I turned to Xbox Live Arcade for a new fix of guns ‘n’ swearing (as Andy and I like to call it). I’d ignored Battlefield 1943 for some time, having grown a little tired of World War 2 games. However, given that this week it’s on special for 800 Microsoft Points (as opposed to 1200), I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s definitely something I could invest a bit of time in, and it’s a welcome break from Modern Warfare 2 – a game which, while immensely fun, has worn a bit thin for my tastes at the moment.

Last Wednesday, Microsoft hosted the press-only X10 event. Essentially a glorified press-conference, but it did give us some interesting nuggets. Without going over every little detail that was revealed (I’ll leave that to Kotaku’s coverage), it was good to hear that some of my gripes with Halo will be addressed in the forthcoming Halo: Reach.

Eurogamer’s preview of Bungie’s swansong Halo title is a great read, and is really helping to build my anticipation of the game. Top top it off, there’s a ViDoc by the developers, plus in-game footage here.

Of course, I could blather on about Crackdown 2, Lost Planet 2 and the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead 2, but Kotaku’s already done the work for me, so be sure to check out their coverage (And for the lazy, here’s the link again).

This morning, Edge reported that Sony UK is experiencing stock issues with the PlayStation 3. Call me a cynic, but is it just a cheap way to generate demand? Some people might have the mentality of “I’d best get a PS3 now, in case they sell out and never make any more.”

Similar to the limited edition black Wii released last year by Nintendo (me? Suckered in? Naaaaah…), it just seems like a way to boost sales without having to do anything too risky or expensive. Of course, I’ve been contemplating a PS3 for a while now, after sampling MAG late last year, although it’ll take more than supply and demand issues for me to rush out and get one this second. Now, a limited edition Black PS3? That might tempt me… *

Finally, although it’s not strictly about console gaming, Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun is now available for a free download along with it’s expansion pack: Firestorm. I lost many an hour to this game in my PC gaming days. I guess now’s a good time to set up Bootcamp on the Mac and get XP installed…

*: Yes, I know they’re black already, it was a joke. Still, I do want a PS3.

Speculation: Hardcore Natal game in development?

CVG reported this week that Microsoft recently posted a job advertisement for a Senior Level Designer. Allegedly this new recruit will be working on a Project Natal title – nothing really that surprising so far. What’s more interesting is the requirements they’re asking for:

“Must have a clear understanding and experience creating mission/environment design, look and feel, AI, combat, strategy, game-flow, and balance.”

Given that we’ve not heard anything about the inevitable Gears of War 3 (yet), could this be an indicator? I guess – given that there was no mention of Gears 3 at X10 – that we’ll have to wait for E3 before we find out what’s happening, both in terms of this new Natal title, and what’s going to happen to those ever-lovable COG soldiers.

It concerns me that they might put such a weighty franchise behind Natal – I don’t really want to be ducking behind cover myself – I want my player-character to do it.

Of course, we could have it all wrong – perhaps it’ll be a new IP for Microsoft?

We can only hope.