IT IS ALIVE

Right, that's it. The party is over. Pack up your keg, the cops are here. It's time to bail.

Bail from this blog that is!

My website domain has gone live. www.chopemon.com is now open for business, servicing all of your game design needs. Kind of. Maybe. I wrote a good piece on decision making in cover shooters at least.

I will be doing the art for it soon.

Enjoy the new site!

Changing Opinions

I have changed my Game of the Year list.

Batman wins.

Post about it here.

Updates Over Yonder

Good news!

My proper site nearly has a proper domain name. Hopefully www.chopemon.com will be working by the end of the week.

While you wait, here are some links to recent posts should you still be frequenting this blog and not my site.

First up, an article about how stealth games have evolved.

Secondly, how about some talk about decision making within cover shooters?

Here's the start of a level I'm creating in Unreal 3.

Here's another level, this time in Sandbox 2.0.

I also got recommended by some fine, respectable folk.

Enjoy!

Hiding Blades in Venetians

First order of day; my blog has moved, I am posting this here again to make sure everyone is redirecting their World Wide Web viewing devices to my new home.

Side note: remember when everyone introduced their web sites by saying "Welcome to my corner of the web..."? Remember Geocities? Remember Angelfire?

I realise that the web address is currently awful but you can the folks over at UK2.net for making the acquisition of a domain name the hardest thing in the world. Should you ever choose to get a domain name, do not use UK2.net. When the revolution comes I will personally make sure that they are the first against the wall. I should have a proper address by the end of the month.

Hit it here.

I also want to peep you to my Assassin's Creed 2 review over at NTSC-UK. I am taking a break from reviewing as I find a new job and other than this review I have one more waiting to go up.

Don't forget to move over to my new site for future updates. Hit it here.

New Site

I am moving my blog over to a new site. Exciting!

The process of doing it has been a total pain in the ass thanks to awful domain name providers and delays in transferring the domain name.

In the mean time though, my new site is under construction. You can find it here.

It is all first pass and I need to sort out proper art and update a few pages, the blog also needs to catch up. In the coming days I will make a full transition to this new utopia and this blog will fall into disrepair, to be abandoned like a next gen wasteland.

I'd love to hear any feedback you have on it. Currently I would rate it 10/10 because there is a picture of Ice T on the homepage.

The Era, it is Ended

If you have been following the news sites today you will have seen this (nicked from Gamesindustry.biz):

Aliens Vs Predator developer Rebellion has said it is reviewing the need for its Derby studio as it continues to grow its offices in Oxford and Runcorn.

CEO Jason Kingsley described the process as "painful", and staff in Derby are currently being consulted about their future. GamesIndustry.biz understands that a number of staff have already been made redundant - although the company denies that posts have yet been cut as that consultation continues.

"Growth is sometimes painful, never more so than in the current climate and we have had to take a long hard look at how we operate our studio network," said Kingsley in a statement. "Strategically we have decided to review the need for the Derby facilities, and consultation with staff at Derby is ongoing."

"No-one has been made redundant by Rebellion in more than a decade, and the Derby studio is very much still open while we conduct the review. We are currently undergoing a process of consultancy with our staff to get their ideas, and establish the best possible future for the Derby studio."

As you can imagine this has delivered a shoryuken to my life and I am scrabbling to find out what I am doing next.

Expect bloggingz to become slightly infrequent while I get sorted.

Resolving Resolutions

I've decided to post up my New Years Resolutions here as a matter of public record so that I can be held to them by you, the baying masses and teeming throngs of people that read this blog.

If 2009 was a year about getting my life in order and exploring myself then 2010 is to be a year of pushing myself much harder than usual.

I spent 7 hours today doing my 3rd Mass Effect playthough. So not a great start but onwards and upwards!

1. Finally publish an indie game.
2. Finally publish a new music track.
3. Finally get a tattoo (or acquire Tatu, whichever happens first).
4. Learn to write betterer.
5. Write or draw something every day (I have actually already started this and it hasn't gone too badly).
6. Not use the word 'gameplay' until it actually has a definition.
7. Learn about more 'things'.

So there we have it. Eight things that I have resolved to resolve. Or something. I will update as they happen. Should I get really drunk one day you may even get to see my sketchbook but I wouldn't count on it.

Game of the Year of Our Lord 2009

Let’s Talk About Game of the Year

It’s time to discuss my games of the year. Every game site is doing their own list and all the usual candidates are present along with surprise award winners like Demons Souls picking up Gamespot’s GOTY which lit up Twitter with its announcement. Before I do my list of games though, here are some stand out moments of the year which I thought deserved a mention with special rewards. Exciting, no?

Game Which I Wish I Had Played: League of Legends

This game is something I know I would love and would lose a lot of time to but due to my lack of gaming PC, I haven’t been able to get into it.

Most Crushing Moment of the Year: Torchlight’s Netbook Mode

I have a pretty awesome netbook and so on Boxing Day when Torchlight was going for super cheap, I grabbed it and fired it up and hit the netbook mode in the game which is supposed to optimise the game to run on my computer of choice. Even on the lowest settings and in netbook mode, the game runs at an unplayable frame rate so I can’t click where I need to and die a lot. It breaks my heart.

Console That Got the Least Use This Year: Either of my PSPs

I really would love to use my PSP more. Perhaps I should pick up Half Minute Hero. As it is, I played the MGS Peace Walker demo for half an hour and that was it.

Most Rage Inducing Moment of the Year: Trying to Beat Seth With Crimson Viper in SF4

GAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaahhhhhhhhhaaha.

Best Thing I Played On the PS3 This Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make an action adventure game. The combination of acting, variety of mechanics and absolute polish present throughout was truly breathtaking and incredibly rare today. The only other game that matches it is Arkham Asylum which shared many similar elements of pacing.

Best Music: Halo 3 ODST

Surprisingly for me this beat both Canabalt and Simon Viklund’s amazing Bionic Commando score. Marty O Donnell crafted a beautifully subtle and understated score for the Mombasa Streets sections of the game and the action music was up to his usual rousing standards. The change in musical direction for the series while sneaking around the streets of New Mombasa was executed perfectly with a haunting jazz/noir theme.

Best Thing I Downloaded: Shadow Complex

I never knew I liked Metroidvania games having never played them before but I’ll be damned if I didn’t love me some secret area finding in this game. The game is an excellent length and while the story is largely forgettable, the action in the game is another example of excellent pacing of mechanics.

Best First Impressions That Quickly Go To Hell: Silent Hill Shattered Memories

This game is one of the scariest and atmospheric games ever made for the first half hour and then the nightmare sections start happening. In these sections you are chased by monsters you can’t kill around a level you can’t navigate as there is nothing to guide you through the darkly oppressing world. This means you keep running around and dying until eventually you manage to find your way either by luck or by trial and error. This ruins all of the atmosphere and tension and just makes you throw the controller down. Also, if you rage quit and turn the machine off because you are sick of screaming in frustration, at no point previously has it auto saved. The rest of the game is simply amazing and if you can, you should play the first hour or so to see all of the amazing ideas the devs have crammed in there.

Best Textbook for Multiplayer Designers: Modern Warfare 2

The bar has been set way beyond the capabilities of most studios by this game. Infinity Ward has almost perfectly nailed triple A multiplayer with the combination of constant unlocks and rewards and excellent map design.

Most Expressive Shoulders in a Game: Buck in Halo 3 ODST

Buck communicates all of his emotions through his shoulders. Go and look.

Worst Thing That Happened in 2009 Award 1: Studio Closures

A lot of talented people lost their jobs this year. There are many reasons for these job losses but I think most can be traced back to the games industry being immature and a place where an awful lot of bad business decisions are made every day.

Worst Thing That Happened in 2009 Award 2: DLC Adverts in Dragon Age

In a fantasy RPG there is a dude who advertises DLC in my camp. Let me say that again. In a game about role playing a character in a fantasy world, there are adverts for DLC. AND IN YOUR QUEST LOG. My friend Beast recently bought the DLC for the PC version and took me through the ten or so steps it took him to acquire it. He had to buy Dragon Age Points. Why should anyone ever have to do that?

Best Thing I Played On My 360 This Year: Modern Warfare 2

Over the years I have become quite a fan of serious looking dudes with guns shouting at other serious looking dudes with guns. In Modern Warfare 2 there are a great number of men that are not messing about. Keith David defends the Whitehouse.

Best Use of the Phrase Oscar Mike: Operation Flashpoint 2 and Modern Warfare 2

Two games may have won this category, but really we’re all winners. In Operation Flashpoint 2, your character says it at least once during every radio transmission and will often follow it up with another one when ordering the squad. Modern Warfare 2 used it when characters moved to cover or described other characters moving to cover. Every time is was glorious to hear.

Games I Have Hated Most in 2009: Anything on Facebook

Farmville and Mafia Wars and all the other stuff clogs up Facebook and on top of all the other inanity that goes on in status updates, has entirely turned me off Facebook.

Chopemon’s Game of the Year List 2009

This list has changed since I initially wrote it and I have updated this list to match my new list.

This list does not intend to objectively state which are the best games released this year. It exists to allow me to write a list (because the internet likes lists) of the top ten games that rocked my world in 2009. They may be on there because I fell in love with them, got hugely excited for them, had amazing multiplayer experiences or maybe they took me by surprise and had an unexpected impact on me.

1. Batman Arkham Asylum

2. Resident Evil 5

3. Modern Warfare 2

4. Street Fighter 4

5. Halo 3 ODST

6. Borderlands

7. Canabalt

8. Mushihimesama Futari ver 1.5

9. Blazblue Calamity Trigger

10. Assassins Creed 2

All of these games blew me away. Real life affirming or life changing stuff. I’ve already talked about or reviewed these games so I don’t want to retread old ground but when I looked back at my year of gaming, these were the games that had stayed with me and the experiences I had with them are ones I will never forget. This list proves that some amazing games were released this year and they are paving the way for more greatness to come.

Other Things of the Year

Best Comic I Read This Year: Batman the Long Halloween

I got into Batman comics in a big way with the release of Arkham Asylum and Long Halloween perfectly captures the kind of Batman I like; dark, shadowy and realistic. Tim Sale’s art captures the shadows of Gotham superbly and Jeff Loeb can really write some good Batman.

Best Film I Saw This Year: Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino writes the best conversations ever. The dialogue in Inglorious Basterds is full of tension and suspense and puts a lot of script writers to shame. The performance by Christophe Waltz steals the show and is utterly mesmerising.

Best Gig I Went To This Year: MC Frontalot at PAX

Seeing and meeting one of my favourite musicians was an awesome experience made all the more special by the crowd at PAX. If nerdcore could rise up, it could get elevated.

Best Album of 2009: Next Level by Dual Core

These guys have really matured their sound over the years which is saying something when you consider how good Zero One was. This album is full of intelligent rhymes and heartfelt lyrics with some incredible beats.

So there we have it. This year is ghost like Swayze and it has been a year full of quality games and unforgettable gaming experiences. 2010 has a lot to live up to.

P.S. I’m predicting now that Splinter Cell Conviction will be my GOTY next year.