My reviews for Bionic Commando and Velvet Assassin went up recently over at NTSC-UK.
As ever, writing with those guys was a great experience.
I also want to point you to the review we recently put up of Rainbow Six Vegas and the ensuing comments thread.
Many people questioned why a review of a (nearly) three year old game went up now and why it criticised the game so much. Pretty much everyone in thread disagreed with the text and score with one person saying that because because it goes into Metacritic we should be embarrassed about putting a review up that so many consider 'wrong'.
Rather than being considered an embarrassment, it should be considered a celebration. NTSC-UK publishes reviews that have something to say, no matter the game or the release date. When reading them I tend to look at reviews as a discussion between myself and the reviewer and that reading their critique I inform, enforce and explore my own feelings and views on the game.
I will go ahead and say that I disagree with many of the points in the R6V review but it is a fascinating read because the reviewer's view point is so opposed to my own. He came at the game from a totally different angle to me and that is super interesting to me.
When we are subjectively reviewing a subjective piece of art, can someone be wrong?
I would argue not.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Of Juarez and it's Call
Another huge delay between blog posts.
Remember the carefree days of GDC where I would post multiple times a day and you would lap the posts up like the salivating dogs that you are? Happy times.
Life has been incredibly busy for multiple reasons and I have been hard pressed to actually sit in front of my Xbox, let alone write some ish. Last week I failed to get any achievements. I know, right?
I have actually instructed my family that if I am offline from Xbox Live for more than seven days, I am probably dead. Or dying. Or wishing I was dead. Last week I was offline for four days straight. They had already pre-emptively warned the relevant authorities.
So, like I say I haven't had a chance to play a lot of games recently so I'm still slowly plodding through RF Guerrilla but last night I managed to get an hour in on Call of Juarez Bound in Blood.
The original Call of Juarez completely fascinated me. The developers Techland have flashes of stunning genius but can't maintain a constant level of polish across an entire game. Like From Software, Techland create games that are very much bound to the intended atmosphere of the game and they don't necessarily conform to game design conventions.
The level design places a great deal of faith in the player buying into the scenario and moving through the sequence without trying to break it. Set pieces will trigger and events will happen regardless of whether you are in the right place or not and if played 'properly' (as much as I shudder to type that) the game is enthralling experience.
It might not be the strongest FPS out there but it is rare in that it attempts to craft a first person experience that relies heavily on story and actions other than shooting to draw you in and through.
In the first chapter you enter a quick draw shoot out with a law man and instead of just blasting him away like any other enemy, the camera goes third person and focuses on your character's hand and holster. You can manipulate the hand with the right stick and the objective of the mini game is to wait until you hear the town bell toll before drawing your pistol and not blowing your load too early. My mouth was agape with how simple but amazing it was.
After that you drive a stage coach (complete with horses) through buildings.
My hetero life-mate Beast has requested that I post more than about games. I'm not sure what about though.
Stay tuned for a post this week which will hopefully be off topic as they say.
Remember the carefree days of GDC where I would post multiple times a day and you would lap the posts up like the salivating dogs that you are? Happy times.
Life has been incredibly busy for multiple reasons and I have been hard pressed to actually sit in front of my Xbox, let alone write some ish. Last week I failed to get any achievements. I know, right?
I have actually instructed my family that if I am offline from Xbox Live for more than seven days, I am probably dead. Or dying. Or wishing I was dead. Last week I was offline for four days straight. They had already pre-emptively warned the relevant authorities.
So, like I say I haven't had a chance to play a lot of games recently so I'm still slowly plodding through RF Guerrilla but last night I managed to get an hour in on Call of Juarez Bound in Blood.
The original Call of Juarez completely fascinated me. The developers Techland have flashes of stunning genius but can't maintain a constant level of polish across an entire game. Like From Software, Techland create games that are very much bound to the intended atmosphere of the game and they don't necessarily conform to game design conventions.
The level design places a great deal of faith in the player buying into the scenario and moving through the sequence without trying to break it. Set pieces will trigger and events will happen regardless of whether you are in the right place or not and if played 'properly' (as much as I shudder to type that) the game is enthralling experience.
It might not be the strongest FPS out there but it is rare in that it attempts to craft a first person experience that relies heavily on story and actions other than shooting to draw you in and through.
In the first chapter you enter a quick draw shoot out with a law man and instead of just blasting him away like any other enemy, the camera goes third person and focuses on your character's hand and holster. You can manipulate the hand with the right stick and the objective of the mini game is to wait until you hear the town bell toll before drawing your pistol and not blowing your load too early. My mouth was agape with how simple but amazing it was.
After that you drive a stage coach (complete with horses) through buildings.
My hetero life-mate Beast has requested that I post more than about games. I'm not sure what about though.
Stay tuned for a post this week which will hopefully be off topic as they say.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Smashing Their Stupid Shit into Tiny Pieces
Red Faction troubles me.
When not playing it I am haunted by visions of a trench coated hero standing amidst a pile of other people's property, hammer clasped in hand with said property reduced to a state approaching nothingness. Around me, overall clad rebels cheer at the fact that I exist and that I am hitting stuff. Continuously.
When I am playing it, I tool around smashing stuff up marvelling at how some people just get it.
I didn't use to think very much of Volition. Red Faction and it's sequel were so-so shooters and Saints Row drove me up the wall. Saints Row 2 on the other hand is a masterpiece. I use the term masterpiece in most cases as a subjective rather than objective term. When I say masterpiece it means I fell in love with something completely and then I have to explain the reasons why.
Saints Row 2 knows exactly what it is and then revels completely in the execution of this vision.
Saints Row 2 allows you to create a hermaphrodite who is tasked with throwing C4 at ninjas and pirates WHO ARE HAVING A TURF WAR. It never takes itself at all seriously and it is brimming with excellently crafted content.
Red Faction Guerrilla is another excellently crafted vision. It is more serious in tone than SR2 (but no less self aware) and Volition have obviously struggled without the ninjas and pirates and the excesses of crime comedy but have otherwise very competently filled a game world that feels coherent and whole.
I started out not having much fun as I was just running around, smashing stuff up and not really enjoying the combat and getting killed a lot. The gun play is lifeless and best avoided but the puzzle gameplay of demolishing buildings is fiendishly excellent. I found that to best enjoy the game I needed to knock it down to Easy so I could just run into a base, hit a bunch of fools with a sledgehammer and pick apart their buildings by identifying and crippling the most structurally important walls.
This post serves three purposes:
Red Faction Guerrilla is a brilliantly focused game that never strays from it's strengths and marries mayhem with very thoughtful destruction and it derserves to sell by the truck load.
I also want to talk about Fuel seeing as quite a few people are slamming it.
I love Fuel.
It isn't the best racer and it has a fair few flaws but I want to point a couple of things out:
Over and out.
When not playing it I am haunted by visions of a trench coated hero standing amidst a pile of other people's property, hammer clasped in hand with said property reduced to a state approaching nothingness. Around me, overall clad rebels cheer at the fact that I exist and that I am hitting stuff. Continuously.
When I am playing it, I tool around smashing stuff up marvelling at how some people just get it.
I didn't use to think very much of Volition. Red Faction and it's sequel were so-so shooters and Saints Row drove me up the wall. Saints Row 2 on the other hand is a masterpiece. I use the term masterpiece in most cases as a subjective rather than objective term. When I say masterpiece it means I fell in love with something completely and then I have to explain the reasons why.
Saints Row 2 knows exactly what it is and then revels completely in the execution of this vision.
Saints Row 2 allows you to create a hermaphrodite who is tasked with throwing C4 at ninjas and pirates WHO ARE HAVING A TURF WAR. It never takes itself at all seriously and it is brimming with excellently crafted content.
Red Faction Guerrilla is another excellently crafted vision. It is more serious in tone than SR2 (but no less self aware) and Volition have obviously struggled without the ninjas and pirates and the excesses of crime comedy but have otherwise very competently filled a game world that feels coherent and whole.
I started out not having much fun as I was just running around, smashing stuff up and not really enjoying the combat and getting killed a lot. The gun play is lifeless and best avoided but the puzzle gameplay of demolishing buildings is fiendishly excellent. I found that to best enjoy the game I needed to knock it down to Easy so I could just run into a base, hit a bunch of fools with a sledgehammer and pick apart their buildings by identifying and crippling the most structurally important walls.
This post serves three purposes:
- I felt like writing something.
- I wish to evangelise RFG.
- I want people to start engineering their games to cater to the player's needs.
Red Faction Guerrilla is a brilliantly focused game that never strays from it's strengths and marries mayhem with very thoughtful destruction and it derserves to sell by the truck load.
I also want to talk about Fuel seeing as quite a few people are slamming it.
I love Fuel.
It isn't the best racer and it has a fair few flaws but I want to point a couple of things out:
- It is beautiful and huge.
- You race through the centre of a tornado.
Over and out.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Outbursts Revisited
The last blog was pretty angry. I have been having a few outbursts recently. There are many reasons why but I feel bad about not properly explaining the Red Faction and Prototype comments (I stand by everything I said about that news post).
Note, the post this refers to has since been removed. Professionalism and what not.
Creating a great game is incredibly hard. For a studio aiming to produce triple A content on a current gen platform there are incredible and massive barriers to overcome. You have to create tech that is up to and maybe above a certain standard, generate a huge amount of art, get the backing of a publisher, create a solid and/or innovative design and then hone the gameplay. That is before the natural problems of dealing with a team of 100+ humans arise.
Prototype and Red Faction Guerrilla are both fantastic games. Their core concepts are exceptionally well realised and are amazing experiences. Special mention must go to the tech in each games. Wow, just wow.
Anyway, my problem with both games is that the difficulty curve doesn't match the game progression. Both games have a number of quirks that are incredibly unfair in certain situations and I specifically want to talk about Prototype in this regard.
For all their victories, videogames have never solved the super hero problem well. In a traditional videogame that has all of the trappings of a videogame (specifically a health bar in this case), super heroes often cause ludonarrative dissonance. How can Wolverine die? Why is Superman taking damage from things that aren't kryptonite?
Prototype runs into this problem as you play a character that is basically a god. He may not have the ability to create matter (maybe I didn't unlock that) but he outclasses every other character in the game. He has an overwhelming amount of powers and many of these dramatically change the game.
As a designer you are faced with a problem. How do you kill a god?
In this case they chose a high level answer and a low level answer.
For the high level they created an engine that can handle Godzilla. That is to say that at any time the screen can be full of fleeing civilian AI, military infantry and vehicle AI, zombie horde AI and monster AI all interacting. It is total chaos and it looks stunning. For the player it means there's probably one hundred things all trying to kill you at once. Therein lies a massive player weakness; chaos. Sometimes you just get overwhelmed, can't crowd control, get pinned and beaten to a pulp. It is frustrating but one of the few ways the designers can actually get you killed.
The low level solution (by which I mean discreet values or mechanics) is that in certain animations during which you have no control, you can be hit and killed. When hijacking a vehicle or consuming something for health you can be hit and knocked out of said animation. You can choose to enter into the animation but due to the zoomed in camera during the lengthy animations you cannot see what is going on and can be hit by the Hunters (which are really annoying as they have very little group AI to stagger their attacks) or missiles or tank shells and lose all of your health. This is really frustrating and eventually forced me to give up on the game.
Prototype is a great game and there is a lot of fun to be had but I am done with difficulty spikes and dying through no fault of my own.
I must reiterate though, Prototype is a great game.
On the subject of writing about games (last post), I want to link you to four of my favourite pieces of writing about games.
Ex GFW editor Sean Molloy talking about personal gaming.
Tim Rogers talking about Super Mario Bros. 3 as a memoir (read all 7 pages or die).
A review of Dead Space by Tim Rogers (I adore Dead Space BTW).
Leigh Alexander talking about the completely misguided Silent Hill Homecoming reviews.
I have also been wanting to pimp MC Lars for a while but haven't found a reason so whatever, here it is. He is one of my favourite rappers and it has been a joy to watch him grow as an artist. His new album is thoroughly excellent and it worth buying the physical CD for the emotional liner notes that catches you completely off guard. So here's a video (it's about videogames y'all).
Note, the post this refers to has since been removed. Professionalism and what not.
Creating a great game is incredibly hard. For a studio aiming to produce triple A content on a current gen platform there are incredible and massive barriers to overcome. You have to create tech that is up to and maybe above a certain standard, generate a huge amount of art, get the backing of a publisher, create a solid and/or innovative design and then hone the gameplay. That is before the natural problems of dealing with a team of 100+ humans arise.
Prototype and Red Faction Guerrilla are both fantastic games. Their core concepts are exceptionally well realised and are amazing experiences. Special mention must go to the tech in each games. Wow, just wow.
Anyway, my problem with both games is that the difficulty curve doesn't match the game progression. Both games have a number of quirks that are incredibly unfair in certain situations and I specifically want to talk about Prototype in this regard.
For all their victories, videogames have never solved the super hero problem well. In a traditional videogame that has all of the trappings of a videogame (specifically a health bar in this case), super heroes often cause ludonarrative dissonance. How can Wolverine die? Why is Superman taking damage from things that aren't kryptonite?
Prototype runs into this problem as you play a character that is basically a god. He may not have the ability to create matter (maybe I didn't unlock that) but he outclasses every other character in the game. He has an overwhelming amount of powers and many of these dramatically change the game.
As a designer you are faced with a problem. How do you kill a god?
In this case they chose a high level answer and a low level answer.
For the high level they created an engine that can handle Godzilla. That is to say that at any time the screen can be full of fleeing civilian AI, military infantry and vehicle AI, zombie horde AI and monster AI all interacting. It is total chaos and it looks stunning. For the player it means there's probably one hundred things all trying to kill you at once. Therein lies a massive player weakness; chaos. Sometimes you just get overwhelmed, can't crowd control, get pinned and beaten to a pulp. It is frustrating but one of the few ways the designers can actually get you killed.
The low level solution (by which I mean discreet values or mechanics) is that in certain animations during which you have no control, you can be hit and killed. When hijacking a vehicle or consuming something for health you can be hit and knocked out of said animation. You can choose to enter into the animation but due to the zoomed in camera during the lengthy animations you cannot see what is going on and can be hit by the Hunters (which are really annoying as they have very little group AI to stagger their attacks) or missiles or tank shells and lose all of your health. This is really frustrating and eventually forced me to give up on the game.
Prototype is a great game and there is a lot of fun to be had but I am done with difficulty spikes and dying through no fault of my own.
I must reiterate though, Prototype is a great game.
On the subject of writing about games (last post), I want to link you to four of my favourite pieces of writing about games.
Ex GFW editor Sean Molloy talking about personal gaming.
Tim Rogers talking about Super Mario Bros. 3 as a memoir (read all 7 pages or die).
A review of Dead Space by Tim Rogers (I adore Dead Space BTW).
Leigh Alexander talking about the completely misguided Silent Hill Homecoming reviews.
I have also been wanting to pimp MC Lars for a while but haven't found a reason so whatever, here it is. He is one of my favourite rappers and it has been a joy to watch him grow as an artist. His new album is thoroughly excellent and it worth buying the physical CD for the emotional liner notes that catches you completely off guard. So here's a video (it's about videogames y'all).
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Whoever Wins, We Lose
So I haven't blogged in a few days.
Sue me.
Cleaning your entire house for a BBQ where you get insulted by your friend doesn't do itself. I also watched a load of 24. More on that later.
This is going to be pretty quick fire because I want to play some Bionic Commando as I need to review it at the weekend.
Speaking of Bionic Commando, I have an issue with a lot of modern videogame music. Most of it is insipid orchestral rubbish or the most derivative guitar/techno silliness ever committed to a DVD. There are four exceptions; Halo, Clamato Fever from SSF2HDR, anything by Jesper Kydd and anything associated with Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando Rearmed.
When Grin did Rearmed they enlisted their composer, Simon Viklund, to redo the NES soundtrack and bring it back up to date. I don't use the word perfect a lot (other to describe anything I do) but Viklund's work is perfect. There is no other way to describe it. You can't write a normal review of it because it would be one word long.
Perfect.
Anyone that says otherwise is lying.
Simon Viklund has also done the soundtrack to Grin's Bionic Commando that just came out. Again he has taken the soundtrack and had another crack at it.
Guess what?
Perfect.
The main theme has been given a hauntingly beautiful piano treatment on the frontend and last night I had the most amazing fight with some pumping battle music. In the latter quarter of the game you are put into a hall with two levels, a big ceiling, lots of cover, grenades and rafters to swing on. By that time you have mastered the swinging and combat mechanics and the enemies that stream in are just toys to play with. I was swinging everywhere, dropping grenades on fools and chaining zip combos into dudes while the most awesome music ever plays.
Go buy either of the Bionic Commando games, grab a few beers, crank your surround sound and soak it in. When your angry suburban neighbour comes round and mouths off about it being too loud, don't knock that fool out like usual. Put your arm round him and make him sit with you as you play. Give him a beer. Be there for him as he cries with joy. Then listen to him through the wall as he goes home and beats his wife because nothing she has ever done was as life defining as what he just experienced.
Speaking of Grin, Terminator Salvation drops this week (in the UK) and despite the terrible reviews, I am excited for it. The fastest way to my heart outside of Corona is a game with a cover mechanic. I have worked on three games with a cover mechanic and I love me some blind fire. I'm not going anywhere with this, I'm just excited s'all.
Next up, IGN just put up a super positive preview of Aliens vs. Predator. Let us gather around and read it together. Tell your partner that you'll be back later, you need to soak this in.
Back to 24.
If Jack Bauer or Keifer Sutherland are reading this, I will make your game for you. I understand that twenty minute sequences in grey corridors is not what you are about. I understand that the game will need about 50 different mechanics and each level will be no longer than 5 minutes. I get it.
24 is a difficult game to make. It is completely unlike any normal game. Levels would not last half an hour and Jack would shoot a maximum of 20 dudes in the entire game. Not in the first five minutes. You would need to create good torture and interrogation mechanics. And driving. And some kind of RTS interface as you play Bill Buchanan directing field ops.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about this recently as I have been binging on 24. It is one of the reasons I lie awake at night not sleeping.
Anyway, I'm done. Bionic Commando time.
Sue me.
Cleaning your entire house for a BBQ where you get insulted by your friend doesn't do itself. I also watched a load of 24. More on that later.
This is going to be pretty quick fire because I want to play some Bionic Commando as I need to review it at the weekend.
Speaking of Bionic Commando, I have an issue with a lot of modern videogame music. Most of it is insipid orchestral rubbish or the most derivative guitar/techno silliness ever committed to a DVD. There are four exceptions; Halo, Clamato Fever from SSF2HDR, anything by Jesper Kydd and anything associated with Bionic Commando and Bionic Commando Rearmed.
When Grin did Rearmed they enlisted their composer, Simon Viklund, to redo the NES soundtrack and bring it back up to date. I don't use the word perfect a lot (other to describe anything I do) but Viklund's work is perfect. There is no other way to describe it. You can't write a normal review of it because it would be one word long.
Perfect.
Anyone that says otherwise is lying.
Simon Viklund has also done the soundtrack to Grin's Bionic Commando that just came out. Again he has taken the soundtrack and had another crack at it.
Guess what?
Perfect.
The main theme has been given a hauntingly beautiful piano treatment on the frontend and last night I had the most amazing fight with some pumping battle music. In the latter quarter of the game you are put into a hall with two levels, a big ceiling, lots of cover, grenades and rafters to swing on. By that time you have mastered the swinging and combat mechanics and the enemies that stream in are just toys to play with. I was swinging everywhere, dropping grenades on fools and chaining zip combos into dudes while the most awesome music ever plays.
Go buy either of the Bionic Commando games, grab a few beers, crank your surround sound and soak it in. When your angry suburban neighbour comes round and mouths off about it being too loud, don't knock that fool out like usual. Put your arm round him and make him sit with you as you play. Give him a beer. Be there for him as he cries with joy. Then listen to him through the wall as he goes home and beats his wife because nothing she has ever done was as life defining as what he just experienced.
Speaking of Grin, Terminator Salvation drops this week (in the UK) and despite the terrible reviews, I am excited for it. The fastest way to my heart outside of Corona is a game with a cover mechanic. I have worked on three games with a cover mechanic and I love me some blind fire. I'm not going anywhere with this, I'm just excited s'all.
Next up, IGN just put up a super positive preview of Aliens vs. Predator. Let us gather around and read it together. Tell your partner that you'll be back later, you need to soak this in.
Back to 24.
If Jack Bauer or Keifer Sutherland are reading this, I will make your game for you. I understand that twenty minute sequences in grey corridors is not what you are about. I understand that the game will need about 50 different mechanics and each level will be no longer than 5 minutes. I get it.
24 is a difficult game to make. It is completely unlike any normal game. Levels would not last half an hour and Jack would shoot a maximum of 20 dudes in the entire game. Not in the first five minutes. You would need to create good torture and interrogation mechanics. And driving. And some kind of RTS interface as you play Bill Buchanan directing field ops.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about this recently as I have been binging on 24. It is one of the reasons I lie awake at night not sleeping.
Anyway, I'm done. Bionic Commando time.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Asses and Elbows People
I like Alien vs. Predator.
You like Alien vs. Predator.
We all like Alien vs. Predator.
Here are some images of the new AvP game being developed by Rebellion which yours truly was lucky enough to do a bit of work on last year.
I saw a demo of it today and it looks s-weet.
You like Alien vs. Predator.
We all like Alien vs. Predator.
Here are some images of the new AvP game being developed by Rebellion which yours truly was lucky enough to do a bit of work on last year.
I saw a demo of it today and it looks s-weet.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
An X-treme Review From an X-Treme Kinda Guy
My review for HAWX has just hit over at NTSC-UK.
As usual it is awesome.
The support from the NTSC-UK staff was awesome as well.
The rest of my reviews are here.
However, this review is the last you'll see of this kind of review from me. I am subscribing to the Cliffster's school of reviewing games.*
Reviews need more balls.
No more "The player can switch between 'On' mode and 'Off' mode at any time with a double tap of either trigger."
Instead you can expect "The bad ass in control can switch it up between 'Pussy Ass Bitch' mode and 'Balls To The Wall' mode at any time with a fist pump. This makes shit get real."
* With regard to this image; I WOULD.
As usual it is awesome.
The support from the NTSC-UK staff was awesome as well.
The rest of my reviews are here.
However, this review is the last you'll see of this kind of review from me. I am subscribing to the Cliffster's school of reviewing games.*
Reviews need more balls.
No more "The player can switch between 'On' mode and 'Off' mode at any time with a double tap of either trigger."
Instead you can expect "The bad ass in control can switch it up between 'Pussy Ass Bitch' mode and 'Balls To The Wall' mode at any time with a fist pump. This makes shit get real."
* With regard to this image; I WOULD.
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