Still looks good today, 26 years later

The strange thing is that Zaxxon pre-dates many of the games mentioned by nearly a decade, even Knight Lore that was released for the Spectrum in 1984 by the company, Ultimate which is now known as Rare.  The game featured the character “Sabreman” who had been cursed and every night would turn into a werewolf, the game world was presented in lovely isometric style with vibrant colours.  You progressed through the game one room at a time, so there was a greater ability to have more detail in the game.  Ant Attack had managed the isometric view point in 1983 but with far less detail and vibrancy, there were very few Ant Attack clones but the same couldn’t be said for Knight Lore.  In the years following Knight Lore’s release, the game shelves were flooded with clones of it, in all fairness many of the clones were direct sequels to Knight Lore, made by Ultimate, but other companies jumped on the bandwagon.  Most memorably were the clones created by Ocean software that I believe to be far superior to the Ultimate series, first up was the amazing Batman in 1986.  Batman’s graphics were even more detailed than Knight Lore but kept the same single room isometric view, there were tough puzzles to solve and the Batman character himself was one of the cutest yet meanest characters seen.  One year later Ocean also published the even more impressive Head over Heels, featuring two characters that could be joined or separated to solve the room by room puzzles, lush graphics and addictive gameplay ensured that this was to be regarded as a classic.  To list all of the games that featured the isometric view would be both long and pointless, but it would spark a sense of nostalgia for those that remember the era.  One of my personal favourites was an underwater themed adventure called “Hydrofool”, long gone, but not forgotten.

Holy isometric viewpoints Batman!

As the next generation of consoles came along, the isometric game was given the cold shoulder in favour of side-scrollers and into the screen affairs, but some people still saw the potential in the isometric viewpoint, most notably the long running Electronic Arts. 1992 saw the release of the first in a series of games that would define the genre for the modern age, the Mega Drive was blessed with the release of Desert Strike.  In the game you flew an Apache helicopter around the Gulf waging war on bad guys, the control of the copter was weighted perfectly and the game was always fun.  The graphics were very sparse with only buildings, the copter and stick figures on display, but it played so good you didn’t really mind. In the following years there were four sequels released, each one a little bit better, but none would match the simplicity of Desert Strike.

It played way better than it looked.

As our consoles became more powerful they were able to do more and more complex things with graphics and soon isometric was left behind in favour of 3D style gaming.  People wanted to play games that looked better and offered more lifelike experiences, but that is not to say that isometric was dead, like the proverbial bad apple it would appear when least expected.  Some of you may lambaste me for saying this but I truly believe that the Resident Evil games were  a modern take on Knight Lore, they featured single room screens and were mostly viewed from a fixed camera point that at times was looking mighty like isometrics.  Rather than having cubes and clearly defined corners, Resident Evil hid them behind real life objects and walls, go back and have a look, you might be surprised if you strip away the layers what you will see.  As before, there were a huge number of games released afterwards that fell into the isometric genre and once again there are too many to list but my favourite here was Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance 2 with its richly detailed graphics and awesome dungeon slaying gameplay.

An original Croft?

Have we finished with the isometrics yet?  Well it would seem that the answer to that is a resounding “NO!” Midway through August, we were treated to a new adventure featuring everyone’s favourite archaeologist, yup, Lara Croft returned in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.  Here we have a vivid isometric game with visuals that would put many full price games to shame and like the first Desert Strike game it has the gameplay to match.  Modern consoles have allowed an age old genre to be brought right up to date with stunning results, yes it can be seen as a novelty or a stop gap until the next proper Tomb Raider game but it just works so well and does it with great aplomb.  After playing it I would love to see other franchises given this level of makeover, it is a known formula that works and when done well could be awesome.  My only gripe after all these years of playing isometric type games is that very few allow you to rotate the camera, why?  I want to lavish in every last detail and see everything, please now tell me your favourite isometric games, let’s hear some blasts from the past.

We started out with Nick asking me what I knew about Kinect and specifically how Kinect works. Without going into too much detail it soon became clear that I didn’t know very much at all. I was under the impression that the Kinect Sensor used a passive infrared thermal imaging camera to detect bodies. This assumption had left me worrying about how the sensor would cope with multiple bodies and motion towards and away from the camera. Having explained my theories to Nick he politely pointed out that I was quite wrong. He explained that the Kinect Sensor uses an Infrared emitter and camera to make a 3D map of its location and the bodies within it. By detecting and separating out the 3D body shapes in the room it can track and keep tracking a human body while discounting the ‘noise’ in the room caused by other people observing the game.

After this swift lesson I was told it was time for my Kinect Moment, explained as the moment you first step up to a use Kinect and make a silly noise of realisation. The Kinect system in the room was setup in the corner of a fairly small room and was ready and waiting for a player, I was pleased to see there was no special lighting and that we didn’t need to stand a great distance from the TV, it was a fairly normal setup.

Just pick up a ball and throw it!

I stepped up to Kinect Sports Bowling, the system took literally a second or two to detect me standing there and then I was in control of the game. I rubbed my hands together ready to bowl, my avatar did the same. A very small thing I know but it made me grin and chuckle a little, my Kinect Moment, in 10 seconds. On with the game, I held out my right hand to pick up a ball and the game switched to a first person view, I shuffled about a bit and with the help of some on screen indicators I lined up my shot. Wondering how to actually start my shot I looked back at our hosts, “just bowl it?” I asked, the response was a nod. Sod it, I swung my arm back and went for it, a straight shot down the alley for 7 pins followed up with another shot right into the gutter. “Right!” I thought, I’ve got this, maybe a little spin. A fast shot towards the right side of the new rack of pins, turning left at the last second for a STRIKE! I half expected an achievement.

After a few more frames I handed over to Michael. Well I say handed over, he stood up, I sat down. No fuss or faffing about and he was bowling. I got to thinking, I’ve spent many family gatherings playing Wii Sports and Wii Bowling is always the game of choice and while explaining to your gran how to play the game with a Wii controller is a great deal simpler than giving them a standard game pad it is still a total pain in the arse.

Just think back now on how you control Wii Bowling. Wrist strap on, hold it upwards pointing to the ceiling, press and hold the B button, no… the B button… the one under your finger *sigh* the trigger, yes, that’s it. Swing back, then forwards and let go of B. No, let go when you want to let the ball go. Here, let me show you. Pain-in-the-arse.

At the very least my short time with Kinect Sports Bowling made me feel much better about this Christmas. We went on to play Kinect Sports Football, a cool Subbuteo style game with the awesome touch of letting you perform your own victory dance! Later in the day we saw the 100 Meter Dash & Long Jump with each event being sprinkled with neat little touches that bring on that chuckle and grin that left me wanting more.

Kinect Sports Football on stage demo

My over all impression of Kinect was a very simple one, it works. It tracks your body’s movement and reproduces them in the game and Kinect Sports is a simple set of games that proves that and leaves me wondering what other things this technology can be used for. I have no interest in playing Call of Duty or Street Fighter with Kinect, those games have their controllers and there is no need to change them. But I do want to play more Kinect Sports, I do want to see my son play with the Kinectimals and I’m damn sure I want to get my groove on in Dance Central. To be honest, they had me sold when I rubbed my hands together.

To paraphrase the excellent XKCD.com*…

Kinect. It works, bitches!

*An explanation of the XKCD strip…

I played it. I didn’t like it. I didn’t “get” it. It’s one of those, like The Last Remnant, that’s kind of an experimental concept for how an adventure game should play out. It does make more sense than The Last Remnant, though. Just.

You play the game by moving along a path which uncovers itself as you move. Using the left thumbstick to highlight an exit from a room you’ll hop into the next – sometimes there’ll be monsters, other times treasure chests or, if you’re really unlucky, some kind of death-filled trap.

It’s a lot like playing a Dungeons & Dragons table-top game or, I realised as I replayed it, the Munchkin Quest series of games, where you randomly build a dungeon as you go, while fighting weird monsters like skeletons in top hats along the way. Every thing that happens – whether it’s unlocking a door, disarming a trap or fighting a monster uses a slot machine interface – green for good, red for bad and dynamite for, well, you blew it. Fighting is different, as your slot machine reels carry the attacks you can pull off – initally all low level rubbish but you unlock greater moves as you progress, if you can hit the slots.

As I said, I didn’t get it at first. There are seven characters (including, just so you know, the obligatory young witch with big eyes) to play the game with. Each tells you whether it’s suited to beginners or experienced players. I have never made it through the first character – a pirate called Laura. I’ve never made it past the second town, if I’m honest. I always died. Or my weapons stopped working – they have durability, but at no point are you told how to sustain the durability of your weapons which leaves you in a situation where all you can do is punch monsters. Which leads, at this early stage, to a slow and painful death.

But then, not many days before you’re reading this, I gave the game another try. Just one last chance to make sense to me before I entered the details onto Ebay and hoped for something slightly above my starting price. Just one last chance to show me that actually it was a decent game.

Bloody hell, it only went and did it. I made it past the second town. I started to understand how things worked, and how I needed to progress. Everything started to click. I’ve died a couple of times, sure, and I’ve lost a few weapons along the way – but I can cope with that. It’s nothing in the greater scheme of things, because now the game’s telling me things like “Francis has unlocked the Leather Suit’s ability ‘Life Protector’”. That can only be a good thing, right?

I’m just happy that things have started to make sense at last. But now, of course, it means it can’t go on Ebay. I have seven characters to finish the game with and I’ve barely scratched the surface with one, I fear. The game is about the search for the Seven Wonders, so far my character hasn’t even mentioned the Seven Wonders so I suspect I’m a while off finishing this bugger yet – and then I have to do it six more times. Currently, I’m trying to get my hands on four more mismatched items which unleash the power of  Prince Henry’s special handed-down-from-generation-to-generation sword, which does make me wonder what I’ll have to do when I play Prince Henry’s storyline through…

I may be some time.

The combined hours I have spent playing games must accumulate to months, perhaps years. I love it, but, like any pleasurable activity (aside from that one, obviously), too much can temporarily jade you. You grow tolerant. At these times I have to make a decision: do I continue playing regardless, stop playing entirely, or attempt to rekindle my passion for the hobby?

This time, I took the last option. And what’s the best way to handle tolerance? Raise the dose, of course. So I looked for a game that would be exhilarating. A game that would not let itself be beaten easily. A game that was… impossible.

On searching through the Xbox Live Marketplace I found myself inexplicably drawn to The Impossible Game. I vaguely recalled reading favourable reviews of this indie side-scroller when FlukeDude released it in November 2009. So I tested the water.

And I was surprised, primarily because of its sheer impossibleness. I’ve always thought of games as worlds, and for me, The Impossible Game comprised a simple world of triangles and cubes. A simple world of triangles that hate cubes and want to see them destroyed. A simple world where black cubes mostly want to help orange cubes but sometimes want to help orange cubes become annihilated by triangles at breakneck speed.

The second thing that surprised me was the outrageous addiction that transpired. It was an annoyingly inconvenient addiction, too. I couldn’t bring myself to put the controller down, despite the hand cramp and the backache, which made my normal daily activities frustratingly awkward. Hauling my 360 to and from the office became a part of my daily routine. I even managed to obscure my play sessions by strategically builing a desktop fort composed of laptop screens, ringbinders and Starbucks coffee cups.

Naturally I’d experienced all these symptoms of game addiction before. The salient difference here was its source; an almost uninterrupted conveyorbelting of my cube avatar into triangles and cubes that forced me to restart the level from scratch — an experience interrupted only by sleep, itself filled with dreams of an almost uninterrupted conveyorbelting of my cube avatar into triangles and cubes that forced me to restart the level from scratch.

My first night of playing saw me reach the 700-attempt mark. From the third night, my Impossible Game dreams became progressively more disturbing.

Dream third night - ?

Dream fourth night - ??

Dream fifth night - ???!

On the third day I was undeniably yet begrudgingly dedicated, granting myself cessation only to eat and update friends on my progress. One such friend, who goes by the gamertag of The Rook, did not seem all too impressed by the game’s challenge, despite its breakneck side-scrolling speed. His lack of appreciation only served to rekindle my affection for the game in protest.

I began to consider why it was I felt so compelled to keep playing. This was the conclusion I reached: the game is simple where it needs to be simple and hard where it needs to be hard. It’s simple to play because it’s a game of timing rather than complex button combos and it only has a single, relatively short level featuring a mere three obstacles (triangles, cubes and pits). However, succeeding is hard because the game’s speed combined with its need for jump-accuracy generates a substantial challenge. It heavily relies on muscle memory, which results in frequent, or in my case constant failures.

So I started calculating how long it would take a dedicated player to beat the game — whether it would be weeks or perhaps even months — when suddenly and without warning, my calculating was rudely interrupted by the unwelcome answer:

The Rook: Mission Apparently Possible

The Rook, evidently running on smug, had beaten the game within days. Congratulating him, I tried to conceal my frustration and envy at the indifference with which he had undertaken the game and the ease with which he had nonetheless beaten it. I’d been striving on and off for a couple of weeks, resolutely nursing my adrenaline back to full health after every car crash, and I was still only halfway through the ruddy level.

Over the next couple of days my dedication started to waver. I still enjoyed playing The Impossible Game, but the unwelcome side-effects that had waved their squatter’s rights in the face of my life were starting to overshadow this enjoyment. The stress dreams were incessant and my colleagues now suspected that I wasn’t shooting-up during lengthy trips away from my desk after all.

In my final attempt to emerge victorious, I decided an audience might improve my performance. But, taking one look at the screen, my mum — a less-than-enthusiastic spectator anyway — simply condemned the creator to play his own game uninterrupted for the rest of his life and walked away with contempt.

I’ve not yet beaten the game, but I suspect my heart’s not in it anymore, at least not in actually beating it. But I’m still a determined gamer. I won’t allow my adeptness at sucking to reduce my enjoyment of playing anything ever again. I will simply be resolutely rubbish.

The following section of the review comes from me prior to seeing the film in cinemas: What sold this game for me immediately were the aesthetics. I’m a huge sucker for 8-bit style 2D games, and already having a brief knowledge of the history of Scott Pilgrim, I knew that the game itself already has its sights firmly set upon on my wallet. A side-scrolling beat ‘em up with retro style graphics and music with a pinch of in-jokes thrown in – I honestly couldn’t ask more out of my 800 Microsoft Points. The storyline behind the scenes though was an interesting enough plot: a boy (Scott Pilgrim) falls in love with a girl (Ramona Flowers) but must fight her 7 evil ex-boyfriends to prove his worth. He therefore teams up with Ramona and two of band mates (Kim Pine the drummer and Steven Stills the lead singer/guitarist) to battle his way through them. That’s it. Very simple, clean cut, and gives a very nice seven world/boss fight game an easy pace to work with for the gameplay. Perfect so far.

The perfection continued though as the video game humour and references came at me thick and fast from the moment I booted up the game. I spotted Triforces, Mario coins, and several other Nintendo placed homages (curiously, despite the game being available on every platform but) before I’d even pressed the start button. I was happy and in a nerdy heaven as I was dropped into my first 8-bit world with a chunky texted ‘Lives x3′ placed lovingly in the top left of my screen. Then I died, admittedly not quite that quickly, but it felt pretty quick (and rather shameful) to lose all three lives before I’d even reached the first ex. Scott Pilgrim showed absolutely no mercy upon my goofy smiling face as I was beaten savagely by a group of thugs with trash cans. However, as you play, you gain XP and level up to learn better combos and I was back into the fray and X-ing and Y-ing my way through seas of 8-bit foes – and it was fun.

I’m well aware that ‘fun’ is a term not used in video game reviews, often, but Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World perfectly demonstrates why we need to bring it back. I walk onto a new screen, a pack of enemies stroll on from the opposing side, and I grab a baseball bat (or a trash can, or rock, or a previously beaten enemy corpse) and proceed to open up a can of whoop-ass on them. It’s all the satisfaction of Double Dragon but with a ton of video game quips and local four player co-op (Yes, four player co-op!) thrown in. A co-op mode which, by the way, I highly recommend – I was hammering the X button like a cricket on speed and it wasn’t until I found a willing friend to buddy up with me that I realised that getting a group of friends together for this game not only makes it easier, it makes it far more enjoyable (and FUN).

I can honestly say that I’ve never smiled so much while playing a downloaded XBLA game before Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. I screamed with anger when I kept dying, I clenched my teeth as I got double teamed by two enemies with broomsticks, but most importantly – I kept playing. The 8-bit music (that happens to be EPIC), the 8-bit graphics (that happen to also be EPIC), and the cheeky video game-culture references were easily enough to leave a toothy grin spread widely across my face. I miss boss battles in games, and I miss playing a story mode with three other buddies to enjoy it with, but I really miss just having fun with a game. That’s what this game is, a one word review, fun. I’ve not even seen the movie this game is based upon, and I’m already smirking my lips off by just how much I like throwing a 8-bit beer bottle comically at an enemies head. This is what XBLA was made for – not remakes, not re-releases, not indie developers trying to get their name out there (okay, maybe the last one, but hush, I’m trying to make a point here!) – but to get a game that’s quick, simple, epic, and FUN.

The following section of the review comes from after I saw the film in the cinema: Buy it. For the love of all that is good, and holy, and glorious, and video game related – buy this game. NOW.

I also wanted to be a cowboy, but never a drug dealer, ex-convict, hell’s angel or newly arrived immigrant with a shady past looking to make a life for himself in New York City. What I’m getting at here is that I’ve never enjoyed playing Grand Theft Auto, I totally get that people love the series and I can see why it just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve played every single GTA game but I’ve never felt all that comfortable playing them. This led me to the assumption that I did not like open world sandbox games up until the mighty Red Dead Redemption. Like I said, I have and will continue to play every GTA game, it would be arrogant not to at least give them a try, so when RDR was released I jumped on it and to my surprise and joy I loved every second of it. This planted a seed of doubt in my mind, do I dislike the genre or is it the setting in GTA that I couldn’t gel with?

Mafia II has answered this question for me, I like this New York, I like this type of crime. I like driving these type of cars and being a wiseguy. To clarify, I really love the movie Goodfellas and that is why I feel at home in the world of Mafia II.

After the game’s initial opening is out of the way, you meet up with your childhood friend and go out for a drive. You manage to convince him that he should let you take the wheel and head off through the suburbs on your way to meet the first of many questionable contacts that you will encounter. This is where something a little odd happened for me, I drove the car slowly down the driveway and onto the busy street. I continued to drive slowly and calmly to our destination, taking corners with care, stopping for other cars. I didn’t take this much care with my horse in Red Dead!

I’m not sure why I took care of the car, I’m pretty crap at driving in games like these so it took quite a lot of effort. I think I just cared more, it was a nice looking car, it wasn’t mine and maybe most of all I got the impression that my ‘old pal’ would send me to sleep with the fishes if I scratched it!

Regarding the driving in Mafia II, the addition of a speed limiter button is a god send for the players like me. I’m impatient and without it I would have left a trail of chaos in my wake whenever I was driving. A problem I had in GTA, was that I could never get a mission finished because I would always cause some bother while driving to the target and end up with the police all over me. With the speed limiter on I just took my time, like a wiseguy would. It’s very easily toggled on and off so you can speed along on the freeway and tap it back on when back on the streets. If you’re a decent videogame driver then you probably won’t need it but for me it made the whole game much less frustrating.

The game itself is strangely linear for the genre. I’d go as far to say that the phrase ‘open world sandbox’ is not applicable. The world is open but there is nothing specific to do beyond the main campaign. Each mission leads you to the next as you play through the story. I can’t say I minded this too much, I’m not a big fan of side missions but they are a nice thing to have when you want a break from the story. This also limits the re-playability of the game as you will have pretty much seen what there is to see on your first playthrough.

So if it’s the story that drives this game then how does that hold up? I guess it depends on your taste. I really enjoyed playing through The Force Unleashed, because I’m a sucker for all that Star Wars expanded universe nonsense, and I’m under no illusion that it is nonsense but still I lap it up. Mafia II is obviously inspired by The Godfather and Goodfellas, going so far as to base whole missions on the events from the movies, but I found that quite charming. With some exceptions, each mission essentially boils down to driving or walking to a location, talking to a guy and getting into a fist or gun fight. Each of these things works well; the driving is pretty smooth but a little lengthy at times; fist fights are simple but satisfying and gun-play is handled nicely.

Ultimately the gameplay is solid, if a little uninspired, but the game is carried on its story, setting and atmosphere, all of which combine to make Mafia II an enjoyable game. A game that left me walking, talking and thinking like a gangster for a good few days. What a tit I must have looked.

Yay, penguins!

Scotland’s second largest city is also home to the Edinburgh International Festival. Part of the International Festival, the city becomes the hub of culture and entertainment for the entire country for the month of August. Every form of recreation – theatre, music, comedy, you name it – is represented, with aspects of interactive entertainment being (surprisingly) served by the Edinburgh Interactive Festival.

A relatively recent creation, EIF invites speakers from a number of influential media organisations to discuss issues involving all aspects of interactive entertainment. Speakers this year came from companies such as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Square Enix Europe and Microsoft. This year’s conference seemed like one of the best yet, with the opportunity to try out the much vaunted Kinect and PlayStation Move motion controllers, only sweetening the deal.

If there’s one bad thing about Edinburgh, though, it’s that I don’t live there, meaning I need to rely on the Scotrail train services to get me through to the capital and back. Due to points on the line failure and a heavily-revised timetable littered with cancelled services, getting through to the city turned from a simple journey into a stressful nightmare that had me running all over the city centre of Glasgow.

After four trains and more than an hour’s delay, I eventually made it through in time for the first speaker, sneaking into the auditorium just as the introduction by Chris Deering, chairman of Edinburgh Interactive, was being wrapped up. I plonked myself down in my seat as Ray Maguire, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, began to discuss the past, present and future of 3D viewing devices.

Maguire discussed how 3D imaging has always been a popular idea, being first experimented with in 1855 for the kinetoscope, an early stereo animation device. Since then, film makers have utilised different forms of 3D imaging with varying degrees of success. While it may have been regarded as a fad due to such attempts, developing technology is making effective and immersive 3D, both in and outside of the home, a reality.

After a rather in-depth and brain-bending explanation of how 3D technology works akin to a university lecture (see Appendix), we were told that Sony had the power, technology and resources to effectively explore and implement effective and immersive 3D visuals in a variety of media, including film, television and videogames, highlighted by a video explaining how Resident Evil Afterlife, the upcoming film mish-mashing elements of all the games and movies together, would use the technology to enhance the experience, although its use of 3D only looked like a gimmick to sell a frankly mediocre and underwhelming-looking movie.

Maguire stated that as a result of Sony’s commitment to videogames, every PS3 will be updated with firmware that allows users to experience their content in a new and exciting way. Titles such as Motorstorm, Wipeout HD, LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 would be made even better with 3D, offering the player ‘an enhanced sense of speed and depth’, ‘a greater sense of scale’, a greater amount of visual clues to process information more quickly and, of course, the much vaunted ‘greater immersion’.

The idea that the player would experience a sense of vertigo while playing certain games in 3D was bandied about rather heavily. The question is, would gamers want to feel such a thing while playing in their living rooms at home?

Killzone 3: looking to make you feel sick in the near future.

Even if you did want to experience such a feeling, the barriers of entry are exceedingly high (or at least they are for the moment). With a basic television setting you back about £1800 and the required pairs of glasses weighing in at around £100 each, you’re gonna need a lot of money (and possibly also a hell of a lot more convincing) if you want to become an early adopter. As luck would have it, Sony had brought along a massive lorry to showcase their 3D tech and also demo PlayStation Move, which Dan and I got a shot of later that day.

The second talk of the day came from Sean Dromgoole, CEO of Some Research & Game Vision, and focused on the importance of videogames in peoples’ lives. He argued that games are art as they fit the definition in that they enrich peoples’ lives and inspire them to achieve greater things, while refuting the claim that ‘games are a service, not a product’, stating it is instead a spectrum in which players of any kind can fall into. Boys may prefer Call of Duty and girls Wii Sports (in general, at least), but it doesn’t matter where we fit into it, just as long as we’re playing something. Games act as anchors for memories both good and bad, causing the emotions that they trigger as a result can be hugely potent.

For the final talk before lunch, Avista Partner’s Managing Director Paul Heydon gave us examples of the fastest growing games companies in the industry, mentioning companies such as Harmonix and Playfish before explaining the innovative business practices these organisations utilised to reach such levels of wealth and success so quickly. Those who like lots of facts and figures, his full presentation can be accessed here.

Dan and I then had a chat with Rare’s Nick Burton and Jerry Johnson, general manager of Xbox Live Europe about Kinect on the run up to its release before having a cheeky play with it.

Once we were suitably puffed out, we checked out Sony’s aforementioned big lorry to test out whether 3D in the home was worth it. Having been touted that such technology would greatly enhance the immersion of titles such as Gran Turismo 5 and Killzone 3, it was disappointing to discover that that wasn’t necessarily true. While each title did look impressive, the enhanced visuals were a far cry from the revolution in videogaming that Sony had been claiming. Perhaps it will become more essential as the technology is developed further and refine, but for the moment it seems more a gimmick than a necessity.

Also rather underwhelming were our impressions after having a short hands-on with Playstation Move. After discovering that (perhaps getting a little too excited about) the sphere on top of the controller was squidgy as opposed to solid, we had a go on two of the technology’s launch titles, Start The Party and Sports Champions.

Squidgy!

Start The Party had us trying out a bug-thwacking minigame, the objective being to bash as many insects as possible in the allotted timeframe with an old wooden tennis racquet mapped to the Move controller. While the bright and colourful visuals of the title were visually appealing and the translation of kinetic movement to on-screen interaction impressively seamless, it was hard to shake the feeling that we had seen and done it all before on the Eye Toy all those years ago. Sports Champions, on which we tried archery, was admittedly fun and responsive, but it’s difficult to get too enthused about a concept that has been utilised before time and time again.

That being said, however, it was still more fun than the existing Wii technology. The paltry Nintendo offering at the festival, which previewed games such as Metroid: Other M and Sin and Punishment, only served to highlight how inaccurate and archaic the once-revolutionary motion-control hardware actually is.

Ready, set, RUN ON THE SPOT!

The final speech we caught that night was Nick Burton demoing Kinect to a larger audience. After a brief history of Rare’s past operations and output, he picked some eager volunteers from the audience to demonstrate a number of game modes (or as many as the stages rickety rostrum would permit, at least). While the audience had a good chuckle at those on stage, Burton told us that with a new of playing came a new way of thinking, which explained why they chose a sports game as their debut Kinect title: the gameplay mechanics had to be so simple that anyone could play. Anyone.

As a result, people of any age, physiology and fitness level can play and maintain a chance of winning over more sprightly competitors thanks to the advanced scanning and recognition technology Kinect offers. The fact that they analysed several sports and distilled the essence of each into only its purest, most entertaining elements only serves to increase the ease of access and satisfaction involved with each game mode. Don’t quote us on this one, but we may have also captured a glimpse of a new, sleeker Xbox dashboard.

The last demonstration of the night meant that we finished the first day of the festival more excited for Kinect’s launch than we had before.

Departing Glasgow later in the morning the next day may have meant I missed the morning rush on the train, but it also meant I arrived too late to hear Michiel Bakker announce the start-up of Ginx TV, the UK’s first television channel dedicated solely to videogaming. After Gamestreamer’s Chris Anderson discussed the current state of digital distribution and shared his thoughts on trends that will shape the retail landscape in coming years, Gamesbrief’s Nicholas Lovell kicked off a rather interesting talk entitled ‘Whales, Power-Laws and the Future of the Media Industry’.

It makes sense in context.

The main brunt of his discussion concentrated on what he called ‘whales’, i.e. the players that most influence and affect a games company’s revenue. After a simple economics lesson, we were told that developers and publishers were going about gaining income from downloadable content the wrong way: rather than asking a large number of players to pay a little, they should be asking for large amounts of money from their small number of diehard fans. Consumers pay for downloadable content for a number of reasons, such as to stand out from the crowd, fit in with other players and build friendships, so developers should create content that offers these benefits that will appeal to their most loyal fans. Most importantly, though, they should be willing to experiment with different business models and to have fun while they do so.

The last talk I caught was given by Margaret Robertson, Development Director of Hide&Seek. In it, she discussed how games change many aspects of gamers’ lives, such as creating strong social bonds, enhancing players’ vocabularies and intellect and changing our physical selves, such as playing Halo: Combat Evolved with what she termed ‘the claw’, a technique that many fans of the franchise will (perhaps morosely) remember. By highlighting examples from titles including Fallout 3, Fable 2, Geometry Wars and Ikaruga, she explained how games develop a player’s reflection, competence, relatedness, agency and persistence when dealing with events in both the real and virtual world.

Winter Games

Afterwards, I hopped out to catch a train home so I could beat the festival rush home. I didn’t fancy impersonating a sardine on the journey back.

The Edinburgh Interactive Festival remains one of the highlights of the summer, managing to improve in quality with each consecutive year. If this pattern continues, then next year’s event will be just as interesting and indisposable as this year’s. Roll on 2011.

Appendix: There are three types of 3D viewing technologies: anaglyph, polarised and shutter technology. Anaglyph glasses are the most well-known, utilising blue and red glasses in order to fool the brain into seeing an image in three dimensions; Polarised lenses trick the brain into thinking an image is 3D by restricting the amount of light that enters through each eye either through linear or circular polarisation of light while shutter technology constantly changes the image each eye is seeing in such a way that the viewer does not experience any flicker.

In order to create convincing and realistic 3D visuals, we must first understand how our eyes perceive such images. Defined as ‘an apparent displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight’, parallax is the stereoscopic concept by which ocular signals sent by the eyes to the brain tricks a viewer into seeing a visual two-dimensional source as a three-dimensional image. There are three types of parallax: positive, negative and zero. Positive parallax causes the viewers’ eyes to diverge, making objects appear further away, negative parallax causes them to converge, making objects appear closer and oops my brain exploded.

Sadly your game isn’t mine, but it could be if you stopped playing Final Fantasy XIII and started playing Final Fantasy VII.

Do you want the smell of adventure?

Do you have an awesome dude with a Gatling gun for an arm? My game does. Yours just has a dude with a chocobo in his hair. And that’s just sad. Think of all the faeces this man must have in his hair.

Do you want characters that swear a lot, aren’t depressing emo kids and have a huge in-depth story? Of course you do.

Do you have awesome characters called Tifa and Cid, and not annoying beeatches called Vanille and, er, the rest of them? I didn’t think so.

I have a main character who dabbles in cross dressing and in some burly man loving at the Honey Bee Inn. I have an entire Chocobo racing game! And betting and mini gaming at the Golden Saucer.

You have hovering save points in the middle of an otherwise deserted canyon. What’s up with that?

Look left, look right, where are you?  Are you in a linear environment with repeated backgrounds which burn your retinas as you run along a path you’re sure you just ran down five minutes ago? Yes you are.  I however, am free to roam in an open world environment with an awesome, gritty futuristic setting, with many different locations, with shops that I can… wait for it… actually walk into like real shops. All of which is made better knowing none of these will be filled with weedy characters called Hope.

You, you are stuck with a girl, with gingery pink hair, who laughs like an idiot for no reason for most of the game, and follows after you like a dog with a mental problem who always believes you have treats in your back pocket, even when you do not.

I have Sephiroth, perhaps the most complex and interesting size zero villain ever in a game. His luscious silver locks wrap around the contours of your body whilst he talks about how much he loves his mother.

And what do you have? Several hours running between thin tunnels for what seems like an eternity.  An eternity with unlikeable characters, swimming in a pool of cheesy dialogue and voice acting and unable to escape the stilted sharks of a frustrating battle system.

While I swan dive into the most rewarding gaming experience of my life.

I have Final Fantasy VII!

Look again, Final Fantasy VII is now Mithril. I’m on a chocobo!



N.B. In case you’re wondering why I’m talking like a man who can create a dream kitchen with just his right hand and turn tickets to your favorite show into diamonds with his left, you really need to see this.

Following on from the epic launch of Blizzards epic StarCraft II we have teamed up with the awesome BradyGuides to once again give you a chance to win one of their excellent strategy guides. Here is a rundown of what the guides have to offer:

• 100% complete game walkthrough for all single-player missions.
• Exclusive maps showing the location of units, enemy bases & key terrain points.
• MP beginner guide offering early build suggestions for all 3 races, including beginner strategies.
• Massive multi-player coverage for beginners and experienced players.
• Dedicated battle.net guide explaining how to find and manage friends, chat with other players and use the matchmaking system to find multiplayer matches at an appropriate level.

For those wanting something with a little more style there is the limited edition hardcover guide printed with a special foil finish that includes a separate portable spiral bound map stand to give you the edge while fighting it out online.

We have three standard edition and one limited edition guide to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, just answer this simple question!

In the original StarCraft the Terran psychic Sarah Kerrigan was captured and infested by the Zerg to become who?

a) The Spawn of Clubs

b) The Queen of Blades

c) The Princess of Hearts

Good luck! – Closing date: 15/09/2010

Just JUMP ON THE GOOMBA!

Seriously, she just jumped into the same Goomba four times and yelled at the screen. What’s going on here? This is someone with the patience to beat the fun-but-frustrating Prototype without ever toning down the difficulty or destroying a controller.

I suppose it’s sometimes hard for me to remember that not every core gamer grew up with a NES (or 2600, or C64, et al) and the thought that a gamer’s first console might be the N64 makes me feel ancient. Kat, who probably obsesses over games more than I do (which is saying a lot), first cut her gaming teeth by way of RPGs such as Harvest Moon 64 and Paper Mario. As such, she excels at games which give her the breathing room to think about a situation and make the best decision. Conversely, she’s always struggled with genres which require twitch-based gameplay and fast-reactions.

The face of failure

Here at Ready-Up, we’ve got gamers who specialise in every genre, from FPS to driving to the Japanese RPG. Personally, I would describe myself as an all-round gamer, although I’m utterly pants at RTS. Over the last six years, I’ve tried to introduce Kat to more old-school and action-orientated games, to broaden her gaming skill – and for the most part it’s worked. She packs a mean Bill in Left 4 Dead. She’s bested bi-pedal nuclear tanks by the dozen in every Metal Gear. Recently, she even beat Dr. Wily in the original MegaMan. Maybe she’ll conquer Super Mario Bros. yet?

Hang on, she’s figured out the warp zone! Wait, no. She died on 4-1.

Anyway, I think my point is this: just because you suck at a genre right now doesn’t mean you always have to. How you started gaming definitely influences the way you’ll play, but don’t be put off trying something new. Give fighting games a chance. Try an MMO. Go retro. Maybe you’ll love it. Practice makes perfect!

When all else fails, turn to alcohol. Another valuable life lesson!

Comments made by Kat while I was actually writing this:

“Damn it, Mushrooooom! I killed the mushroom.” “Ahh, I didn’t even see that.” “I would have never found that on my own.” “GAPS!” “WHY CAN YOU RUN ACROSS THE LITTLE GAPS?” “This game would be way better if it was MegaMan.” “I miss having fireballs. That was way better.” “[while swimming] OH NO, THIS IS TERRIBLE. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FEELS WRONG.” “I had a mushroom that time. Eat it, plant.” “The jumping fish are scaring me.”