Rest in peace, Radeon 5770 with after-market cooler. :(

Not so. Although my beefy CPU probably has a lot to do with it, this oddly-long current generation of console gaming has made it a wonderful time to be a PC gamer. I’ve probably spent about £700 total on both hardware and software over the last four years of PC gaming and, failing ATi cards aside, every configuration I’ve put together destroys a PS3 and Xbox 360 in terms of performance and visual quality. Even running this three-year-old graphics setup, I’m able to play the likes of Skyrim – ironically with a PS3 or 360 controller, should I so choose – at “Low” to “Medium” image quality at decent frame-rates, or in other-words on par with console versions.

The current situation reminds me a lot of a reader’s letter I skimmed over in an issue of PC Gamer UK magazine, from way back in 1999. In it, the reader proposed that all PC games should have a “crap mode”, a scaled-down version of the game everyone could run. This was during a time when the hardware manufacturers of the day were really pushing foward the platform so that only those with big pockets could really play the latest games, so it made a lot of sense. While PC elitists would disagree with me, I’d argue that our current situation is better: not only do we get arguably superior versions of games without spending too much on hardware, but console fans get optimised versions of games as well. And with Free to Play and digital distribution driving prices down, most software can be grabbed for bargain prices: in my case, I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, both Dead Spaces and Fable III for less than £10 a piece, relatively soon after launch.

I bought every game in this list for, in total, less than most people spend on two or three console games.

But if you’re running a laptop with weak on-board graphics, as a lot of PC users are, you’ll still be spoiled for choice thanks to the rise of independent games. Yes, I have talked a bit about how much I enjoy indie gaming at Ready-Up, but that’s because it’s getting hard to deny the quality and quantity available; the majority of which will run on a toaster if you prod them enough. Every year, we see games like Cave Story, Dungeons of Dredmor, Terraria and that “Minecraft” thing born on the PC platform, and we usually get enhanced ports of XBLA and PSN hits like Bastion, Super Meat Boy and Limbo on the cheap, too.

So while I look forward to my new, fancy-pants NVIDIA card arriving and once again being able to play The Old Republic at silky smooth frame-rates (with Hydrophobic Filtering enabled, natch), perhaps I can hold off just a little longer. In the meantime, there’s still a hell of a lot of good games to play.

VVVVVV. Rock-hard and dead-cheap, but oh so worth it.

In my last blog, I spoke of the story virtues of Star Wars: The Old Republic. But how does the game play? It would be sad for me to fall back on saying “Like World of Warcraft”, but I can at least mention how diverse and interesting the character classes are. The Jedi Knight, for example, plays like a hybrid between a traditional aggro-drawing tank and a combo-building rogue, which is lots of fun. This is in sharp contrast to the Trooper, who feels like what the Heavy from Team Fortress 2 would if he had charges, cool-downs and different ammo types. This diversity is made all the more mind-boggling (and potentially problematic, balance-wise) when you consider that all eight of the character classes in the game can promote to two unique specialisations (my Jedi Knight became a Sentinel, wielding two blades), and each of those can travel down three complex talent trees.

There are many beautiful sights in the galaxy of The Old Republic.

I didn’t really have a lot of complaints about my time with the game, but I did run into a few standard MMO niggles. Despite a functional “taxi” waypoint system, travel between areas is problematic at times, although the way each map is broken up into “phased” story areas helps prevent quest resource hogging by giving a player their own private session. In a neat touch, the game also detects when you are clearing out more enemies than you need to in a given area and rewards you with scaling bonus experience appropriately, which makes repeat trips through familiar terrain feel more valuable. As a result of this phased structure, Bioware is able to make a lot of quests into mini-dungeons, which are thankfully quite easy to turn into party experiences. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to participate in a large scale story dungeon (called “Flash-points” here), although I will say that I was recommended to join one within the first 20 levels of play.

Running up to enemies and blasting them at the same time feels really slick.

If grouping with others ain’t your thing, though, then perhaps you might like to partner up with a helpful NPC. Yes, just like the previous Knights of the Old Republic games (and to a lesser degree, Guild Wars), you’re given companions on your journey. In a smart move, the companions are tied into your unique story, which means that they’re class specific and balanced against your role in battle. If you’re tanking as a Jedi Guardian, you’ll be accompanied by a damage-dealing robot or a healing, force-heavy Jedi Consular. Handily, you can switch between companions at any time, and if you do decide to quest with others, they’re automatically dismissed as needed to maintain game balance. And just like KOTOR and Mass Effect, they’re more than simple quest-givers and damage-aids. Not only are they vital to your story choices, some of them can be romanced should you so choose. Companions also take care of crafting, allowing you to mix and match a range of skills (such as archaeology and treasure hunting) for improved material loot gains. In an inspired choice, TOR also borrows Torchlight’s pet mechanic in allowing you to send your companions away for a couple of minutes to sell off your vendor trash, returning with credits in tow. Having a droid that not only fends off my enemies but builds me lightsabers in my off-time is pretty damn cool.

Just a sample of the galaxy. Who wants to go to Hoth?

There’s still so much more I want to talk about, but I have to stop before this second blog post turns into a monsterous preview. Just know I haven’t talked about the awesome, Master Sword-esque moment when I built my first lightsaber, or the ridiculous amount of time I spent reading The Old Republic’s Codex, its built-in lore wiki ripped straight from Mass Effect. I haven’t mentioned the insane PvP battle-zones, or finally finishing the first major quest-line, earning my own starship, and opening my map of the galaxy and realising I can head anywhere. Oh! And the arcade-style, on-rails space combat missions! Heck, I haven’t talked at all about the time I spent as a fiesty Bounty Hunter, serving the Sith Empire – but fighting for good and the light side of the force – and how impressed I was at how well ranged characters control.

So yes, it’s World of Warcraft with lightsabers and fancy cutscenes, but also a few subtle yet significant additions. And that’s no bad thing.

The on-rail space combat missions look rather lovely and evoke the Rogue Squadron games.

My subscription for Star Wars: The Old Republic was pretty much guaranteed when, after my character greeted his Jedi Master during the interactive opening cinematic, I realised he was voiced by David Hayter, the voice of Metal Gear’s Solid Snake. Of course, since its announcement in 2008, EA and Bioware’s joint MMO venture has been met with accusations that the game would basically be World of Warcraft with lightsabers and fancy cut-scenes; a direct and calculated effort to topple Activision and Blizzard’s juggernaut through the marketing force of the Star Wars licence.

Spoilers: there are spaceships.

During my beta weekend with The Old Republic I came to understand that while these comments are true to a degree, they’re kind of missing the point. From a financial view, EA is certainly betting a lot on The Old Republic’s success, yes. But to look at things more positively, The Old Republic is also a chance for Bioware to use its story-telling prowess to finally flesh out the fan-favourite Knights of the Old Republic timeline, while drawing the built-in Star Wars audience into “almost anything goes” pre-Anakin Skywalker lore. And yes, it’s timed almost perfectly to pick up any World of Warcraft fans who love its formula but have become bored of that world or are worried about the incoming panda expansion down-playing any serious narrative elements.

Questing together to take down a difficult foe can be quite satisfying, especially when class types compliment each other.

So, what makes The Old Republic stand out from other WoW rivals, such as Warhammer Online, Star Trek Online and Lord of the Rings Online? Undoubtedly, one of the most attractive elements of the game is its uniquely crafted story-lines – one for all eight core character classes – each playing out much like a classic Knights of the Old Republic adventure. During my beta weekend I spent the majority of my time playing a Jedi Knight, who began his quest on the Jedi safe-haven of Tython. Here, I underwent a lengthy tutorial that taught me the basics of gameplay (force-leaping and slamming into the ground is cool!), allowed me to do a bit of group-play (two padawans are better than one) and make some important story decisions (the Sith are bad… or are they?). This being Star Wars, the force plays a pivotal role in shaping your character, regardless of which class you’ve chosen in either the Republic or Sith Empire faction. Want to roll a Dark Jedi who gets the job done for the Republic, but role-play a good-natured Sith Imperial Agent? You can do either, and for the most part it’s handled well. For contrast with the Jedi, I also played the early stages of the Bounty Hunter class, which as expected hit very different story beats and was quite different in tone.

Kira can be a handful, but her heart's in the right place. And she's good in a fight.

But this is still an MMO, and there are inevitably quests. That said, it really can’t be overstated how much difference fully-voiced cutscenes make to the tasks you undertake. It also helps that The Old Republic’s Team Fortress 2-like graphics shine for the most part. While there are sure to be questers who want to power through and ignore dialogue, forcing the player’s interaction through the use of a Mass Effect-style response-wheel ups the immersion considerably, even if you do run into the odd “kill three sabre-cats” quest. There are real choices to be made, and not just in conversation; some quests have different turn-in points, allowing you to assist different NPCs for different items, titles (“Deklaine the peace-keeper!”) and light and dark side force rewards. In one instance, I had the opportunity to help a local politician who was doing real good for the lower-class citizens on planet Coruscant. After discovering she was working with a local crime-lord to try and control gangs through fear, however, I had to make the choice to turn her in to the press or let it slide for the greater good. Although exploring the massive planet quest areas was a pleasure for a Star Wars geek like me, it seemed entirely possible to follow the core storyline, ignore the side-quests and make up the experience gap with the game’s variety of PvP modes, if that’s your thing.

That’s all for now, but join me for my next blog where I’ll really dig into the gameplay of The Old Republic before it launches worldwide on 20th of December!

My Bounty-Hunter, despite working for the Empire, has a heart of gold.

Released on other platforms earlier in the year to critical acclaim, Team Bondi and Rockstar’s love-letter to 1940’s pulp noir, appropriately titled L.A. Noire, arrives this month on the PC with a couple of bonuses. Praised for its intricate storyline, well-researched setting and genuinely impressive facial graphic technology, are the streets of LA still worth visiting in this Winter of AAA-releases?

From my play-time, I was able to develop a simple test to establish whether you’ll enjoy the game. Answer me these questions three: Do you enjoy pulp noir? Do you enjoy sand-box-style games, especially the driving parts? And lastly, do you enjoy the Phoenix Wright series of adventure games? If you answered “Yes” to two of the above, you should probably at least try the game.

The game is structured into episodic cases, assigned to the investigation desk Cole currently sits at. Starting as a lowly patrolman and working his way up to LA Vice, the player will guide Mr. Phelps through car crashes, serial killings and even the odd house fire. Each case usually starts with a graphic murder — squeamish players be advised, as there are many mutilated, naked ladies — and after inspecting the body, you’ll go after possible suspects and build a list of evidence in a handy note book.

Interviewing the many “persons of interest” the game throws at you is probably both the most impressive and frustrating aspect of L.A. Noire. Here, Team Bondi gets to show off its immense skill at writing and animation, and working against the backdrop of 1940s LA, manages to create an immersive experience. This is also the area where my previous comparison to Phoneix Wright rings true: after asking some questions related to the case, it’s your job to respond to each suspect statement with “Truth” (accept), “Doubt” (press) or “Lie” (present evidence). Unfortunately, frustration quickly sets in when you’re certain you have a suspect cornered only for them to flip you off for not selecting “doubt” when you should have called them on a “lie”, or vice-versa. While Phoenix Wright gets away with this with limited penalties and saved games, L.A. Noire doesn’t give you a second chance, unless you want to repeat a case. That said, having to commit to answers manages to create a certain sort of tension, and there are even multiple paths through each case depending on your actions.

Of course, with Rockstar involved, it might come as no surprise that there’s a busy city to explore during missions. Street crimes make up the majority of the content (with more available as you progress through the game), although there are collectables to find if you take the time, such as newspapers that trigger cutscenes that effectively build back-story. These street crimes help break up the occasional monotony of slower cases, but they’re mainly there as fluff. The heart of the game is its core storyline; think less GTA, and more Mafia (the first one, anyway). In this regard, the game succeeds, despite a slow (but arguably deliberate) paced build-up before tensions really rise.

There’s probably a couple of readers here who are pretty familiar with the L.A. Noire experience and want to know how the PC version fares, especially after GTA IV’s initially buggy release. For the most part, business is as is it should be. Upping the game resolution to 1920×1080 further enhances the effect of the impressive “Uncanny-valley” face-technology and also really lets some of the more detailed areas of 1940’s LA shine. Though the game remained playable on my modest setup (Athlon II X4 630, Radeon 5700, 4GB RAM), the frame-rate often dropped as low as 20fps in complex scenes. The inclusion of Xbox 360 controller support is very welcome, with buttons mapping automatically between keyboard and gamepad depending on use. Best of all, this “Complete Edition” of the game includes all DLC cases by default, and veterans of the game can jump right to the new cases through the investigator desk in the main options menu.

The Buster Sword – What started out as a twist on the classic fantasy “Bastard Sword” went on to become probably the most iconic weapon in Japanese RPGs, perhaps due to its ridiculous size. Although statistically a weak sword – it’s Cloud’s first weapon in Final Fantasy VII, after all – it’s the history of the blade that truly matters; it was once wielded by Cloud’s mentor and friend, Zack, and in turn by his own mentor, Angeal.

Cloud, showing that weedy, 5'7" guys can still be awesome. *cough*

The Gunblade – Squall Leonheart needed a weapon to match his stoic, cool personality. The Gunblade, a unique but difficult-to-use combination of a revolver and a sword, was the perfect fit. Say it with me: Gun. Blade. Heck, the Gunblade proved so popular that it found itself retconned into Final Fantasy VII (through CGI-movie Advent Children), and a modern variant is even used by Lightning, the protagonist of last year’s Final Fantasy XIII.

It even comes in its own classy carry-case!

Frostmourne – This hellish blade is a cornerstone in Warcraft lore and the key to the power of the Lich King Arthas, commander of the dead, and primary antagonist for much of the series. With a personality all its own and the ability to dominate the minds of its user, it draws its undead might from the infused spirit of Ner’zhul, fallen shamanistic leader of the orcs. While players never got to own Frostmourne itself, dedicated raiders could eventually construct Shadowmourne, its powerful sister axe.

Let them come - Frostmourne hungers!

The Masamune – Named after history’s greatest sword-smith, this sword has appeared in nearly every Final Fantasy in some form. My favourite variant is probably the Masamune of Chrono Trigger. Instead of being a long katana (like Sephiroth’s Masamune in Final Fantasy VII), this is a straight broadsword watched over by the spirits Masa and Mune, and used by the valiant knight Frog to battle the evil Magus. Only later in the game does the player discover their own role in forging the mystical sword…

For Cyrus and the Queen!

The Master Sword – My favourite weapon in gaming goes by many names and descriptions: the Blade of Evil’s Bane; the Sword of Time; the seal on evil itself. A single blade used by generations of Links in multiple timelines, the Master Sword is a key item in the Legend of Zelda games. Retrieving the sword in each game acts as a moment of growth for the player; not only is it far more powerful than earlier weapons (and often the only one which can damage the final boss), it’s an acknowledgement of overcoming the game’s challenges to that point. Word on the ‘net is that a primary plot point in Skyward Sword may be the origin of the blade itself. Get hype!

The Hero's triumph on Cataclysm's Eve, Wins three symbols of virtue. The Master Sword he will then retrieve, Keeping the Knights' line true.

So when my friend Stephen approached me with the idea of putting together an all-in-one MAME (“Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator”) cabinet, I jumped at the chance, more so because he had a real budget to buy the needed parts. As we approach the end of the build, I thought it’d be a good idea to record our failures and victories, and ultimately show off the final result. Let’s do this!

Here's the custom marquee for our own unit, modified from a jukebox marquee.

Initial Preparation: Before you even think of building anything, you’ll need to decide what type of cabinet you want. Are you making a traditional upright machine, or something more grandiose like a racing rig or perhaps a cocktail table? In our case, we chose a four-player cabinet, in the traditional upright style, with an old 21″ CRT TV (for that arcade-perfect picture), which we “borrowed” from Stephen’s workplace. I’ve got a fairly modern PC lying around spare to power the software, although even a decent netbook will run everything fine if you keep the system clean.

The next step is figuring out the construction of the cabinet itself. There are dozens of places online to buy buttons, sticks and marquees, but finding the wood required to build the unit can be a real challenge. In general, we’d highly recommend finding someone who sells pre-cut kits. In the end, we placed a custom order with Craig at Turnarcades, who offers kits for cabinets, cocktail tables and bar tops, including the electronics. Once you’ve sorted that out, you’ll have to get it delivered. We arranged a pick-up job at ANYVAN for a reasonable £70 total, and we were on our way.

The parts arrive!

The Build, Day One: We were pretty excited when everything arrived, to say the least. It’s initially daunting looking at over 70KGs of flat-packed wood, but after opening the big box marked “control panel” parts, our excitement returned. There’s nothing quite like playing with a big bag of arcade buttons. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Big kid, me? The very thought!

We ran into our first problem when we did a real inventory of the parts. All of the electronics and cabinet panels was there, but we were missing two of the four support jousts. A quick trip to B & Q sorted this out, but it was a bit of hassle to stop mid-build. For the most part, the rest of the day was a success. Fitting most of the panels was easy, although I’d really recommend you have more than two people to help keep everything in check. We did run into one issue with the weaker wooden panels cracking – don’t tighten those screws too much! – but by the end of the night, we were ready to measure out the last panel: the monitor shelf.

I think we did a pretty decent job for our first build on day one!

That’s all for now! Join me next time, where we’ll be discharging a CRT so it doesn’t kill one of us, painting lots and lots of wood, and finally setting up MAME (and other emulators) for endless nights of arcade fun.

This is the back-story to Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle, an upcoming point ‘n’ click adventure game from WizardBox, the developers who brought us the well-received So Blonde. Penned by Steve Ince, whose previous credits include classics such as Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky, it promises to be a humorous, witty experience with a particular focus on plot. I was lucky enough to be given an in-progress preview version of the game to test my prowess at combining items and navigating dialogue trees.

The local bully is defeated in a co-operative puzzle. The resulting dialogue made me giggle!

With this being an adventure game about pirates, I inevitably drew comparisons to the legendary Monkey Island series. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, though. The gorgeous, hand-drawn backgrounds – presented in 1080p – evoke memories of the art from Curse of Monkey Island, with the same bright, pastel colours and attention to detail. This carries through to the game’s cut-scenes, which use a combination of still art (in an anime-esque style) and animation to great effect. Thematically, in what is probably an intentional reference to adventure games of old (and to allow a slew of fun pop culture references), the world of Captain Morgane presents hints of technology and items that shouldn’t exist in the 17th century; on my play-through of the demo, I encountered a Mr. Potato Head, a plushie which resembles a Prinny and even a Worm (as in, Team 17’s strategy multiplayer series Worms) equipped with an eye-patch and pirate hat!

That’s not to say that what I played didn’t have its own flair of original content. In an effort to mix things up, the player is occasionally presented with mini-games, like the reaction-based sword-duel. This plays like a simplistic, Flash-based fighting game (complete with health bars and dash, fast and heavy attacks) but is a welcome diversion. Given where the story is going, it wouldn’t surprise me to see more of these as the plot moves forward.

There's some beautiful sights to behold in Captain Morgane.

Even with the excellent presentation (including dialogue where every line is voiced), I think the area that Captain Morgane most impressed me is its puzzles. As a bit of an old-hand at adventure games, I appreciated the balanced difficulty of its riddles. Even working through the “tutorial” portion of the game – the protagonist’s childhood years – they were a bit tougher than I expected, but never unfair. If you stop and think about them logically (and, crucially, from the perspective of a kid), they all make sense. Rather than hand-hold you through puzzles if you get stuck – something I’d argue fellow adventure game developer Telltale’s excellent games do a little too often – Morgane might prompt a vocal clue or prevent you from heading off to a new area to complicate matters. Handily, the inventory screen keeps track of your current plot objectives if you get completely lost, without giving too much away.

With a projected release date of February 2012, I look forward to playing Captain Morgane when it’s finished. Although I ran into a couple of issues during my time with the game – a sound balancing problem, path-finding conflicts and a dodgy voice-over or two – these are all relatively minor blemishes on a game that, with some polish, should make for a fun, solid adventure game experience.

I'm interested to see what happens now that Morgane has to find a real crew!

A little about the premise if you’re fresh to Harvest Moon, though: you play as a plucky young male or female who has just inherited a spacious, but unloved, farming estate. It’s your job to turn this forgotten land into a profitable farm by mending to crops and raising animals. At the same time, you’ll get the chance to make friends (and develop relationships) with the population of the nearby town of Zephyr, try your hand at fishing and bug-catching, and even plant some flowers. If this sounds like Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series to you, then you’d be partly-correct, although Harvest Moon has a greater emphasis on progression. While time in Animal Crossing passes in tandem to the real world, Harvest Moon has a fast day/night cycle with calendar-specific events. The fact that NPCs shift location throughout the day, and that your character has a limited stamina meter for how much he can farm, forces you to plan your time very effectively.

Everything you’d expect in a Harvest Moon game is here. There are festivals. You can cook. There are pets. You can get married and have a family. There are mini-games, although this time they can be played with friends in limited multiplayer for new bonuses. However, the main addition to this entry is the titular Grand Bazaar system. Every in-game Saturday, instead of shipping your crops off to some unknown merchant from distant lands via that mysterious box outside the front of your farm, you can opt to take your crops to a local market and compete with other merchants for customers. This does add a bit of Recettear-style flair to the proceedings – there are even decent rewards for out-performing other merchants – but otherwise, it’s business as usual. You buy seeds, you sell crops and you upgrade your farm; this continues until you decide to stop. As near as I can tell, unlike some earlier Harvest Moon titles, you won’t be judged on your game performance by a forest spirit on your departed grandfather in heaven after enough time has passed, which kind of removes any sort of goal.

I really wish there was more to say about this game. The character script is as sharp as usual, although the NPC personalities could have been taken directly from any previous game and I wouldn’t have noticed. The game controls well for the most part, with optional touch-screen controls that do the job just fine, though I found it faster to stick to the D-pad and face-buttons. Presentation, meanwhile, is a mixed bag. Grand Bazaar doesn’t have the tight sprite-work of something like Friends of Mineral Town (instead favouring pre-rendered 3D sprites); there are, however, some neat little graphical touches, such as swaying trees or reflections of the player on the lake. On the audio side of things, there are a number of catchy background tracks present, but you’ll have to put up with some tinny sound samples throughout.

This likely isn’t what you had in mind for a racing game, but this is par for the course with Trackmania, a long-running series of light-hearted, multiplayer-centric arcade racers which deftly balance tight control and over-the-top track designs. After what must seem like an endless line of “Forever” and “Nation” iterations (the latter of which is free), Trackmania finally enters proper sequel territory with Trackmania 2: Canyon, the first in what promises to be a true overhaul of the games.

For longtime players, this promise is first felt in the way Canyon handles. Gone are the F1 and muscle cars of its forebears; instead, we’re treated to rally-style racers. While the controls retain the “twitchy” feel the series is known for, these cars are heavier and the physics model is more grounded in reality. There is also a greater emphasis on easy drifting this time around, which was tricky (but not impossible) for most players before. These changes, combined with the usual wacky Trackmania track designs, make for a whole new take on its gameplay.

That base gameplay remains the same, however. Players drive a car and race through a track, trying to achieve the fastest lap possible. When you finish the track (or if you screw up) you restart from the beginning (or optional checkpoints, but these just waste time) and attempt to shave precious milliseconds off your performance. It’s a simple formula, but a surprisingly addictive one. It’s somewhat analogous to Super Meat Boy, where the best players are constantly rushing through stages with wall-jumps and whatever shortcuts they can find to stay on top of the leaderboards, understanding that a restart is needed if that attempt is anything but a perfect run.

That’s not to say that you have to be great at racing games to get any enjoyment out of Trackmania 2. Earning medals in the dozens of included single-player tracks (split among ranked “flags” of difficulty) will take a good chunk of time on its own, but it’s the multiplayer where the game really gets its hooks into you. Like LittleBigPlanet, almost every track is designed by players via a friendly built-in editor, and there are extensive options to customise cars, sound-tracks and server layouts as well.

It’s no exaggeration, then, to say that the heart of Trackmania lies in its vibrant online community. I was puzzled at first when I heard that Trackmania 2 wouldn’t be launching on Steam, given the success that “Nations” and “Forever” had there previously. The reason for this lies in the developers wanting greater control of ManiaPlanet, the improved network back-end for the game. Apart from offering the requisite messaging and server features of most online platforms, ManiaPlanet also gifts every user with 5,000 “planets” when they first log in. These planets can, in turn, be used to support your online efforts, whether it’s donating planets to a server so it appears higher in the server list, or spending some planets to call votes and switch maps. Additional planets are earned by simply playing the game and ranking on different tracks. Although some interface elements could use some tweaking, it’s an impressive start for the service.

At time of writing, only the time-attack race mode seems to be available online. It’s hoped that more unique offerings, like Forever’s “Puzzle” mode, will turn up as a free patch in future. The game supports both keyboard and gamepad controls, although acceleration isn’t analog by default due to the nature of the game, which may take some getting used to. Interestingly, in a move I can only applaud, Trackmania 2 does support split-screen multiplayer. Although the game isn’t going to win any awards for visual wizardry, it does look nice (and occasionally beautiful) and runs well on most systems. That said, the “Canyon” theme of every track does tend to get a little stale after a while, and I look forward to the rumoured “Valley” expansion.

For those of you unfamiliar with TF2, it’s a class-based FPS where you work in teams of up to 16 to capture and defend various objectives. Originally released in late 2007 as part of The Orange Box (“The best deal in gaming”), it was critically-praised for its delicate balance, beautiful art-style (a hybrid between the bright pastels of The Wind Waker and the model work of Pixar) and a wonderful sense of humour. Crucially – and this is still core to my own enjoyment of it in recent weeks – it doesn’t particularly punish players for bad play. Sure, working as a team is essential to dominating your opponents, but the light-hearted nature of the whole experience means that it’s not difficult to just hop onto a server for some quick play. The diverse nature of each class – they all feel very unique – means that there’s dozens of hours of play on offer even if you’re more interested in a kill/death ratio than team-work.

Victory! And I'm not even that good!

Dozens of community and official maps have hit the game over the years, but the brunt of game updates have come in the form of class items. Although this is far from unheard of in multiplayer shooters – just look at the guns on offer in Black Ops or Bad Company 2 – what sets TF2 apart is how the items balance out and affect classes. From sandwiches which restore health, to a crit-inducing solution known as “Jarate”, to a fish that you can use as a weapon; there’s a lot on offer that changes play immensely.

Even the items which seem to make no sense when you first acquire them soon come into their own after some experimentation. Although Valve have been stalwart in their efforts to refine each of their base class roles, players can further spec their favourite through item combinations. Take the (Scottish) Demoman class, for example. While he normally utilises skillful ranged shots with his grenade launcher, give him a Chargin’ Charge (a uniquely buffed shield) and any sword and he suddenly becomes a speedy melee class. Even when items don’t outright push a class into a new role, they do allow the player to favour a particular “stat” of their class – such as defense, speed or fire-power.

Pulling out the Zatoichi is a risk, but successful kills will restore your health.

While no doubt part of Valve’s master plan is to make piles upon piles of cash, TF2 recently made a successful transition to the Free to Play model, invigorating its player base at the same time with new arrivals. Naturally, this revolves around its item system, allowing players to purchase a souped-up gun for £1.49 or lay down upwards of £5 for some exceedingly silly hats. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t have any fun without sending some green Valve’s way; the default items are all perfectly functional, and, unlike some MMOs which have embraced the fremium model, all of these items (sans some promotional-but-purely-cosmetic hats) can be acquired through skill-based achievements, crafting or as free, regular item-drops. Although partly-random, players are given loot just frequently enough to keep them interested. This FPS has a bit of an MMO flavour and it’s really quite ingenious.

Just as I write this, Valve has also launched its new Steam Trading service, which will allow users to trade in-game items for items in other enabled games and even for Steam gifts. The ramifications of being able to trade a rare hat for a copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are still sort of mind-boggling, and I look forward to seeing how the service evolves. That said, if you’ve never given TF2 a real go, now is the time. As mentioned before, it’s available on PC and Mac via way of a free Steam install, and system requirements are fairly low. It’ll even run on a majority of laptops if you boot the game in its DirectX 8 mode, which still looks pretty great. Don’t forget we’re always up for a game on the Character Select Forums or on our Steam group!

For those who grew up with Quake and rocket-jumping, may I present: The Gunboats.

Jump Meat Boy, jump!

To celebrate the retail entry of Super Meat Boy, Ready Up has partnered with Team Meat and Mamba Games to offer three copies of the bloody delicious Super Meat Boy – Ultra Rare Edition:

Super Meat Boy – Ultra Rare Edition For £24.99 (recommended retail price), this retail edition of Super Meat Boy includes the full game, as well as: A full comic / sketch book A poster Soundtrack Over 350 Levels, dozens of secret retro warp zones 16 unlockable indie game characters Full level editor And an exclusive T-shirt featuring Meat Boy!

For a chance to win, just answer the question below and you’ll be entered into our prize draw. We will notify all three winners by e-mail. Good luck!

For the chance to win one of three digital copies of the game for PC answer the following question and fill out the form.

What did OC-Remix veteran Danny B create for Super Meat Boy?

A) The Soundtrack

B) The Meat

C) The Boy

Competition ends 16th September 2011. Closed.

You see, I spent some time living in various parts of Asia around 1996, during the rise of the PlayStation and the N64. With Nintendo and Sony focusing on more established markets like Japan and America, it was not rare to happen upon dozens of hilariously-named famiclones stacked high in a shop window, shadowed by ads enticing potential buyers with promising features such as “THE NEXT GENE GARAPHICAL” and “CINEMA SOUNDINGS”. This little back-story ties closely into today’s events: I have been gifted a box which, if the claims on the front of the packaging are to be believed, contains a portable Mega Drive. It also claims to be pre-loaded with “18 classic games”. In an interesting twist, it’s officially licenced by SEGA. A successor to the rare SEGA Nomad or simply a well-built famiclone? Investigation is required.

With Streets of Rage? What could possibly go wrong?!

As it turns out, it’s neither. While it’s officially licensed, this is only for the purposes of the included game selection; some quick research reveals that the patent for the Genesis and Mega Drive expired some time ago, meaning that the manufacturer of this particular unit, AtGames, didn’t actually need SEGA’s permission to build it. In some ways, it shows.

Admittedly, the device is beautifully packaged – a well-designed magnetic box houses the unit, protecting it with shaped foam. The problems start when you pull the device out of there. It’s always a worrying sign when a piece of electronics weighs about the same as four pencils. Fitting the three required AAA batteries add some much needed heft to the device, but I soon ran into my next problem: the screen. Turning the device on, it became apparent that it’s using a display about half the resolution of the Mega Drive itself, which isn’t exactly high. Apart from creating some weird interlacing issues, it makes the text in some games nigh-impossible to read. It’s similar to playing Dead Rising on an SD set and struggling with deciphering the font. On the upside, I bet the battery is pretty decent!

No, my camera didn't do that. It actually looks like this.

Unfortunately, the unit has also fallen pray to a common famiclone issue: inaccurate sound. It’s hard to argue against the power of retro blips and blops in invoking nostalgia. Now, imagine if the classic “dling!” of Sonic collecting a ring was more akin to the sound of, say, a dying squirrel. That’s what happens when you play any game on the AtGames Portable Mega Drive.

But what’s important is that these games still play well, right? Whether it’s the addictive nature of – no, sorry, I can’t do it. Streets of Rage just sounds so wrong! And what’s up with the game selection on this thing? Streets of Rage 1 and 3, but no Streets of Rage 2? Just Sonic & Knuckles, without Sonic 3? Sonic & Knuckles is LITERALLY the second-half of Sonic 3!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The bizarre thing about this situation is that it could have easily been avoided. Further research reveals that AtGames have actually been making Mega Drive clones for nearly ten years, and most of their designs do a great job emulating the hardware. Many AtGames consoles even have cartridge slots which are compatible with most of the Mega Drive and Genesis carts out there. Heck, they’re actually SEGA’s official Mega Drive manufacturer for the Greater China area even now!

That said, I still appreciate the gift. With all its problems, the unit is a bit of a licenced-oddity, even among previous efforts from AtGames. It’s really hard to be angry at a hand-held that has Columns, Golden Axe II and Streets of Rage built-in. Plus, my friend gave me this awesome Space Invaders clock as well!

DO... DO... DO... DO... Time to get up! I have the best friends. :)

As outlined in Ready Up’s earlier reviews of Episode 1: It’s About Time and Episode 2: Get Tannen!, the Back to the Future game is an episodic adventure series from the minds behind Sam and Max and Tales of Monkey Island. This means you’ll spend a lot of time talking to locals, solving item puzzles with the stuff you’re carrying around and find on the ground, as well as, yes, pointing and clicking. For the most part, this is ideal for telling this linear tale of what happens seven months after the conclusion of the movies, even if each episode can beaten fairly quickly.

The short length of each episode isn’t the main issue; the game is just far too easy. In addition to a robust hint system – which not only outlines Marty’s current goal but also flat-out tells you what to do if you get really stuck – a couple of puzzles are actually re-used across the episodes, so most players will zoom through each session. You can turn the hint systems off, as I did during my play-throughs, although anyone who has beaten, say, a Monkey Island game will have no problem regardless. That said, there are a couple of well-done action sequences in which Marty must use his environment to his advantage in fun, interesting ways, such as a confrontation with Biff where a conveniently placed table-mechanism is within reach.

But none of the gameplay snags matter. Back to the Future fans aren’t here for hardcore adventure game puzzles, they’re here for wonderfully mad pseudo-science, timeless characters, simple-but-smart plot setups and tense chase sequences involving a DeLorean and almost anything resembling a skateboard. This, I’m pleased to say, the game has in aplomb. Thanks to the inclusion of authentic voice work – featuring Chistopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, Claudia Wells as Jennifer Parker, and an eerily-accurate AJ LoCascio as Marty – as well as original trilogy writer Bob Gale, it’s not hard to imagine this being the fourth movie of the franchise. Bits and pieces of Alan Silvestri’s almost legendary music compositions are present, along with a number of original tracks produced in-house. In general, the sharp, cartoony visuals do a great job of portraying the various eras of Hill Valley, although a couple of assets are duplicated between each outing.

Despite being produced one after another on a roughly monthly schedule, Telltale has maintained a fairly consistent level of quality for each outing. Episode 1 and 2 set up the overall plot dilemma with relative ease. Episode 3: Citizen Brown breaks the mould a little bit, taking some inspiration from A Clockwork Orange and 1984 and moving into darker territory, ultimately debating the ethics and implications of time travel. Episode 4: Double Visions takes this even further, occasionally questioning the morality of the actions of the player and even Marty McFly.

For the those who’ve been along for the whole ride, Episode 5 finally brings us answers to the increasing riddles of past episodes. Why did Doc make another trip back in time in the first place? What’s up with Marty’s grandmother? Can Citizen Brown be stopped? And will Marty’s life ever be the same? Spoilers aside, all I’ll say is that the ending manages to tie all of these elements together into a cohesive whole, while evoking the spirit of the first film’s ending in a special way… and it does it by being bloody insane at the same time. In a final twist unveiled just as things calm down, Telltale simultaneously homages the series and pokes fun at it, with a conclusion that both sets up a second season and is laugh out loud  funny. This is all ignoring a fantastic multi-part cameo by every-one’s favourite 80’s teenage actor throughout the final episode. It’s pretty great.

Well, at least there will be more food to eat shortly.

Educational video games, then. Depending on who you ask, they’re either fun distractions for a growing mind or a pandering waste of time. In America, at least, they’re fondly remembered for the likes of The Oregon Trail, famous for allowing un-prepared players to die from dysentery and in other humorous ways. This was followed up by a number of Trail sequels, but it eventually led to the birth of the ridiculously popular Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego series, which continued to sell well into the late nineties. Heck, at one point in gaming history, the production of the next Carmen game was prioritised over Prince of Persia, a concept that must seem laughable to anyone who plays games.

America continued to receive a stream of surprisingly well-designed educational titles for the next decade, like physics-puzzler The Incredible Machine, which has arguably influenced everything from Portal to every iOS game ever. Even Ron Gilbert, adventure-game veteran behind the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion series, made a successful stab at the kid-friendly market with his Freddi-Fish and Putt-Putt adventure games.

This shipped with my Windows '95 PC back in the day and I still played it long after I bought some "real" games!

As some of our older British readers will recall, things were a little different on this side of the pond. While those of you who, I dunno, could afford a car probably used something as luxurious as an Apple Macintosh, complete with a copy of Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, we at Dundonald Primary School had a BBC Micro. In 1995. It was here that I was introduced to “problem-solving educational adventure”, Granny’s Garden.

Now, a certain percentage of our readership will have closed this tab out of sheer terror, because Granny’s Garden may as well have been a survival-horror/torture simulator as far as my fragile young mind was concerned. Imagine: you’ve been tasked by local royalty to retrieve a number of magical items for the usual MacGuffiny reason. Fair enough, except that to get to these items, you’ll have to navigate through the labyrinth of terror that is the witch’s home. Good luck figuring out which rooms are safe to enter. Do you want to pick up the [RED BROOM]? Are you sure? Worse still, the witch - who we can only assume is the titular “granny” - can pop up at any time to scare the hell out of you and prompt an instant game-over. Your only chance at escape? Trial and no error. Or death.

OH GOD, I'M SO SORRY

Snap out of it, Scott! She can’t hurt you anymore. Right, yes. Outside of the usual shovelware, what’s happening with interactive edutainment nowadays? I’m always happy to point towards traditional games as a great starting point for kids. It probably sounds like a tired argument by now, but I’m more convinced than ever of the benefits that “hardcore” games bestow, in measured sessions: improved reading-skills, dexterity and problem-solving, to name a few. The potential for creative-output is also massive; just let your son or daughter play LittleBigPlanet for an hour and see what madness they come up with. More recently, however, sandboxes like Minecraft have sparked a new kind of education: the Minecraft Teacher.

The project, brain-child of IT teacher Joel Levin, aims to re-purpose what is normally a reasonably-serious game experience to keep kids learning. Using a carefully constructed tutorial-world and customised server commands (described as his “teacher magic”), Joel initially guides students along a certain path to instil new skills and confidence with technology… and then lets them loose to do what they want, albeit once he has taught them what they need to know. It’s pretty ingenious; we know that the children are actually learning, but as far as they’re concerned, they’re adventuring through an unknown gaming wonderland. It is, in many ways, the best example of “playing to learn” that I’ve seen.

A student report written in response to learning with Minecraft in class. Apparently, this kid knows something Sun Microsystems doesn't!

By Friday, I had sunk 22 hours into the caverns, wilds and dungeons of Terraria. A Minecraft clone this ain’t. True, the game doesn’t do much from the outset to make you think otherwise. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: after randomly generating a new world, you’re plunked onto an unknown location on the world map, tasked with gathering some wood to build a shelter and even a workbench.

But the differences soon become apparent when, during your first night alone in the wilderness, you get attacked by an onslaught of slimes while trying to build a simple dirt shelter. Terraria is hard, with a great emphasis on combat, survival and gearing up to overpower your foes. Although you can happily while away your time building vast structures out of all sorts of materials (from grass mounds to raw meteorite), it’s much more enticing to forge a molten chest-plate or a grappling hook, which provides the basis for some seriously addictive content-progression. There are also a number of mammoth bosses, such as the Eye of Cthulu and the Eater of Worlds, which require great dexterity and perseverance to overcome, rewarding the player with new crafting materials and access to new loot should they succeed.

And what loot. Even though the game was released ahead of schedule, the game is simply packed with content. From relics like the Hermes’ Boots (which allow the player to dash across the land) to the legendary rocket boots (self-explanatory), there are all sorts of item drops which change your character in significant ways. The random nature of land-formation and object placement means that no two worlds will play exactly the same, although they will all share common elements, such as a hidden sky mass or two and a dangerous dungeon. It’s up to you what order you tackle these challenges, though.

The open-ended gameplay is extended to the multiplayer, which caters to a variety of play-styles. Want to team up against dungeon-guard Skeletron? You’ll have a much better chance with a friend by your side. Or would you rather construct an epic fort as a team to fend off a goblin invasion, one of the many in-game events? Heck, there’s even scope for PVP, with a built-in team toggle for turning on your own allies. Ingeniously, there’s no real limitation on item progression; although storage-chests are world-specific, your player stats and inventory travels with you, which means you can quickly hop onto an online server and show off your progress.

While I would gladly talk at length about all the fun I’ve had with Terraria, it isn’t perfect. For starters, there are some niggling interface issues regarding screen-resolution as well as inventory management, and intermittent crashes can be a problem. Multiplayer hosting is also a little unstable for some players, with no Steam network-support present, instead rocking classic IP-address configurations. While I personally find the 2D sprite-work and retro-chic melodies charming, those enamoured by HD gaming may be put off, despite some nice lighting effects. And although a certain type of gamer will appreciate its initial challenge, variable-difficulties and a tutorial would be welcome; for some, starting out with no armour or weapons might just be too tough. That said, these are very minor complaints in an otherwise excellent package.

That said, the service has its advantages, and I’m not just talking about the crazy sale prices. Once in a while, a little-known but promising game developer or indie dreamer might make it onto the sale list and earn some recognition. Mount and Blade, an action role-playing game from Turkish developer TaleWorlds, is one such title. I’d heard praise of its melee-combat systems in years past, and when its sequel (Mount and Blade: Warband) added multiplayer and extensive mod support, it earned a special place on my wishlist. A £4 Steam sale two weeks ago was the final push in taking a chance on it.

At one point, I was knocked to the ground by a club and a man on a horse jumped over me. On the bridge. In the volcano.

I’m very glad I did. Admittedly, the game doesn’t make a great first-impression; jump straight into the single-player and you’ll be greeted to a text-heavy, convoluted interface laced with off-putting numbers and statistics resembling a D&D character-sheet. Worse still, on default settings, the graphical engine looks like it just emerged from a time-capsule circa 2003.

However, take some time to work through the built-in tutorial or challenge the very active multiplayer community, and Mount and Blade quickly reveals itself to be a carefully constructed, skill-based action-game. The combat, despite an initially steep learning curve, might be the most successful take on first/third person melee-combat this side of Zeno Clash. The open-ended nature of the single-player – where capturing prisoners, betraying factions and taking mercenary work by killing bandits are all standard fare – makes for a lot of fun once you work out its unique quirks.

You can't see them clearly here, but on the horizon are dozens and dozens of archers!

More impressive are the game’s fantastic online battles, which are practically a case study in emergent, player defined gameplay. In one battle, I witnessed two factions forgo fighting on safe ground to instead duel across an unstable bridge… inside a volcano. Then, in a hilarious fort assault reminiscent of the end of Army of Darkness, I laid siege to a heavily guarded tower, taking the full grunt of an oppressive archery force with my two shields.

But apart from the novel, diverse multiplayer battles – which can and do focus on everything from massive clan wars to the recreation of key conflicts from The Lord of the Rings – the thing I like most about Mount and Blade is its pairing of modern game physics and mechanics with old-school PC gaming sensibilities. The series has a rare flair of ambition about it and, for better or worse, frequently bites off more than it can chew by taking interesting gameplay risks. Sure, the net result has more than a few rough corners, but watch this space: one day we might look back at this as something special. With the right developer support and polish, I think it could be huge.

Victory! Uh, sort of.

If you’re thinking of joining the fray, there’s a playable demo available on Steam. Although the latest stand-alone expansion, With Fire and Sword has just been released, Warband is probably the better bet; the active modding and multiplayer community haven’t migrated over yet, as most of Fire and Sword’s features can added to Warband with a few downloads and a couple of clicks. Either way, it’s time to Mount up, Ready Up!

As you all know, ever since Animal Blast rocked PCs early last year, Game Crazy Games’ rise to fame has been near-meteoric. But despite our company pulling in enough bucks to ruffle some serious feathers over at Rovio Mobile, it might shock you to learn that we had many embarrassing failures before we finally hit the big-time. Even though it seemed like a no-brainer, the masses didn’t respond well to our first title, the animal-themed FPS Animal X-ing. Somehow, Animal X-ing 2: Nook’s Revenge fared even worse, and the company was pushed to the brink of financial ruin.

Our games may not always look or sound the best, but they've got it where it counts - gameplay.

I mean, it was tough at the start. With only three employees and little capital, I had to be careful how we allocated resources. Our prodigious programmer, Anne Droide, managed to pick up a lot of the slack in quite a few ways, but the company layout changed dramatically at the beginning. I’ll not mention the name for legal reasons, but I made the tough decision to ditch our sound-guy early on. Frankly, he wasn’t very good. What kind of sound engineer just waltzes up to your desk and asks to risk valuable development resources on graphics, anyway? He didn’t even know what a C64 was! Martin Galway would be disgusted.

Eventually, by means of online recruitment campaigns and enlisting a friend of my secretary, we managed to find the perfect mix of fresh-blood and industry veterans. Following the Animal X-ing debacle, we took some quick government contacts for mascot and character design to build some capital. The team were still pretty demoralised, but I perked them up with some Dead Bull. It’s amazing what an energy drink can do – we completed the contracts ahead of schedule. With renewed confidence and spirit, we were finally on our way to laying the groundwork for Animal Blast.

Only $599! Blast-processing optional.

And then fate intervened. My secretary booked us some time off from development to head to a press event, where the Exodus was finally revealed. Barely a week later, we managed to get a meeting with a head Senga exec; not only were they were impressed with our contract work, but they liked our back-catalogue, unsuccessful though it was. Securing a dev-kit, we switched our target platform for Animal Blast and the rest, as they say, is history…

It’s difficult to say what the future holds for Game Crazy Games. As CEO, I can say with confidence that we remain committed to producing high-quality, innovative game experiences. However, we’re thinking of migrating onto other development platforms and expanding our workforce, as it’s no secret that the Exodus’ position in the marketplace is growing stagnant. There will no doubt be significant challenges, but we-

…wait. You guys weren’t talking about my experience with iOS/Android game Game Dev Story? You were asking about something else? Uh, my mistake.

Apart from being one of the tactical RPG granddaddies – with a level of story-telling quality matched perhaps by only the original Final Fantasy Tactics – the Fire Emblem series is unique in that its playable characters can die. And I don’t just mean that a unit will be unavailable for the rest of a battle; unless they’re truly essential to main story, they are gone for good – removed from all further NPC dialogue and combat skirmishes, denying the player multiple story threads, bonus items and, of course, a valuable fighter. Dead. The only way to revive them is to load a save-file from the beginning of a fight.

When a companion dies, you're treated to them uttering their last words to remaining allies.

At first, this particular mechanic can be a little hard to swallow for some players. Indeed, it put many off of the series when Fire Emblem 7 first arrived in the west in 2003, localised simply as “Fire Emblem”. But for those who stuck with it, they discovered this brutal punishment had an odd effect: you start to really care for your men and women. These little sprites and polygons not only have strengths and weaknesses, but personalities and histories. Soon, you end up worrying whether you can continue the battle with the losses you’ve incurred.

Warning: Minor Mass Effect 2 spoilers ahead. You pretty much get told this stuff on the back of the box, but I’m not taking any chances.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about how he handled the suicidal finale of Mass Effect 2. Of course, with an almost OCD-level of obsessive preparation, I took every precaution to ensure my crew would survive, earning the “No man left behind” achievement in the progress. My friend did not; not only did he lose Yeoman Kelly, but he lost singing salarian scientist Mordin. Despite this, he’s exporting that save to Mass Effect 3.

They'll be no encore for this star...

When I questioned this course of action – this madness – my friend told me that he’d be doing a dis-service to the game to do otherwise. That was his outcome of the story. I can’t help but respect that. I have to wonder… as we all clamour for games which give us greater control and choice over the game world itself, perhaps we’ve forgotten the narrative power of life and death – especially if that responsibility lays in our hands. While it’s true death presents many story challenges if you want to put it in a game outside of an ending, the pay-off could be worth it.

Approaching the final chapter of Path of Radiance, I haven’t lost a single unit, regardless of the number of times I’ve been forced to start each battle afresh to maintain that. But maybe I should have taken the losses and moved on. Maybe I missed the point.

Don’t worry, though, I do know my adventure games. Not only have I played through almost every one of Telltale’s recent offerings, I grew up playing classics like Day of the Tentacle and Fate of Atlantis on my Amiga 1200. Now that we’re two episodes into this five-part series, is Back to the Future a time-trip worth taking?

When we last left Marty McFly, he had successfully rescued Doc Brown from a 1931 prison cell by means of a rocket-powered drill. Unfortunately, in the process, he also managed to jeopardise his very existence. Episode two, “Get Tannen!”, opens with Marty trying to fix these mistakes by going back in time to the events of episode one, “It’s About Time”, all-the-while avoiding himself (for threat of a paradox), recalling some of the most memorable (and confusing) moments of the movie trilogy.

This is also an excellent excuse for Telltale to try its hand at more action-oriented, timing-based puzzles, which see their way peppered throughout this episode. They’re definitely welcome. Once things calm down, you’ll have more time to take in the surroundings of Hill Valley, where the game returns to classic adventuring roots with simple item-riddles. The point ‘n’ click controls work just fine for guiding McFly around as you talk to local denizens, gather information and try to take the crooked Kid Tannen down.

If you’d told me a year ago that a Back to the Future game could work without the voice of Michael J. Fox, I’d have called you mad. But just as before, AJ LoCasio does an outstanding job filling his shoes, while Christopher Lloyd settles into the role of Doc Brown in no time. Even though most of the characters and environments are lifted verbatim from episode one (a classic Telltale trademark in speeding up development time), this actually works in the game’s favour; 1931 Hill Valley now feels like an established entry in the BTTF canon, as we discover more about Marty’s grand-parents and Doc’s youth. There are even some twists to what we believe is the truth – contradicting relationships, blooming romances – and the episode concludes with a fantastic, 1984-inspired cliffhanger which had me dying to continue.

That said, episode two has its issues, mainly concerning difficulty and length. Perhaps I just know all the standard adventure game tricks, but I didn’t struggle to figure out a single solution, even with the game’s extremely generous hint-system completely disabled. I finished the adventure in one three-hour sitting, leaving little to replay. The episode effectively comprises a single linear puzzle section capped at either end by action set-pieces; overall, I just didn’t feel like I’d done nearly as much as “It’s About Time”.

But I don’t want to sound too down-beat. After all, “Get Tannen” has the difficult job of closing one story-thread and passing us onto another, which it achieves while packing-in some moments BTTF-geeks will love; from Doc Brown explaining to a bewildered Marty the logic behind time (time-lines “A” through “E” since the start of episode one), to Marty confronting a 1986 Biff and his cronies outside his home.

Another in the long line of dungeon-crawling action-RPGs available on the PSP, Lord of Arcana has the standard features: randomly-generated dungeon rooms, a long list of hunting quests to undertake, and lots and lots (and lots!) of item crafting. After an introductory tutorial which teases you with the full repertoire of combat abilities and all five weapon types (before naturally proceeding to strip them away), you’ll spend the majority of your time in a small town, handily inhabited by big game hunters and weapon-smiths. Your first item of business is to join the local guild, who’ll point you in the direction of some beasts to take down – and even hook you up with some real-life mates for ad-hoc multiplayer, should you so choose. Unfortunately, online-play isn’t available.

Like Chrono Trigger or the Tales games, enemies appear on the battlefield before you initiate combat, allowing you to pick and choose which monsters to fight. Once contact has been made, the game breaks into a separate field with only your prey. Here, the game becomes a 3D brawler, with light, heavy and magic attacks, as well as the usual dodge mechanics. There’s an enemy lock-on feature that, although initially clunky, works fine once you get used to how it looks for brawlers. While it all feels a little vanilla at first, there’s a twist in the combat in the form of God of War-style finishing-moves, complete with unique animations for each enemy type. After a monster drops down to critical health, maintaining lock-on focus on it will present button prompts for the coup de grâce. Nailing the button prompts is almost always satisfying and it comes into greater focus in boss fights, where pulling these off successfully is essential to taking the boss down – usually because it involves lopping off some important weak spot or body part with your giant sword.

It’s addictive. Even if the quests aren’t always that exciting, it still evokes that “one more go” mentality, primarily due to the crafting system. Here, classic RPG min-maxing is in full force; “with just one run in the forest”, you’ll think, “I can get enough monster cores to add +10 strength to my Gladius”. Unfortunately, some of the material requirements for crafting can be a little excessive, leaving you to repeat some quests more times than you’d care to. Despite being a title from the studio behind the wonderfully-mad Deadly Premonition, the storyline isn’t really a major element to Lord of Arcana. Sure, there’s some requisite stuff about warriors vying for the power of Arcana stones, but it’s all an excuse for you to go kill a bunch of local wildlife, loot their corpses and upgrade your equipment. And that’s fine, really. Coupled with some occasionally sharp NPC dialogue, it does the job, even if there’s not that much incentive to push forward.

The presentation is a bit all over the place. Environments can be a tad bland, with blurry ground textures and a lack of detail evident. However, there are some nice character models and particle effects present, particularly in boss battles, where you can expect plenty of pretty glowing light-sources. On the audio-side of things, there are some catchy musical tracks on offer, especially if you enjoy rock or orchestra – it’s no surprise that the game features contributions from Final Fantasy-veteran composer, Nobou Uematsu.