The Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) 2010 [UNFINISHED]

Or as I like to think of it, Christmas for gamers. This is my absolute favourite week of the year – yes, even more than Christ’s birthday (sorry bro). It’s a week filled with games, surprises and media mayhem. This year was particularly great because all three console juggernauts Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony showed off their new hardware. I'll start off by giving my thoughts on each company's press conferences, starting with..

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Microsoft: Okay, so apart from Metal Gear Solid: Rising (which I don't doubt will get some sort of censorship in Australia), Halo: Reach and the relatively humble display of space dogfighting, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Dance Central, the show was rather bland. Most of the other items presented were ones already announced at an earlier time or just had little impact at all. Well, except for the 360 Slim reveal and announcement that everyone in the audience gets a free bribe - err - I mean unit. Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Kinect-other-stuff just looked like knock offs of other efforts (or lack of) already done on the Wii.

And I know what most people are probably thinking - "Uhh, Call of Duty: Black Ops?". Come on, it's more Call of Duty. The only impressive thing about that preview was that it looked like an Infinity Ward game rather than a Treyarch game. With the abundance of high-octane military shooters already released and the ones still on the horizon, is there really reason to keep being so excited about these games? No, no there isn't.

As for my thoughts on Kinect itself... Well... There's a lot of potential there. But then again, there's always a lot of potential with new hardware, it's just a matter of developers thinking more with their heads and less with their wallets - and in most cases that's too much of an ask. Harmonix's Dance Central looks like a great new dance game that you actually dance to. I enjoy going out with friends and dancing every now and again, but hopefully this game'll help me learn some new grooves to bust out for the chicas.

Nintendo: If you've read my rant on Nintendo from last year, then you'll know that I've grown to become really disappointed with them over the last few years. I honestly didn't know what to expect out of their upcoming conference, so judging by their efforts over the last three years I decided to go with low spirits. Passed the first twenty minutes of an incredibly awkward demo of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by Miyamoto (God that was hard to watch...), the briefing really picked itself up and worked to be the best conference of the show. So many great announcements were made such as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Kirby's Epic Yarn and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Then there was the 3DS reveal and the myriad of announcements (on and off-stage) for that console as well - Kid Icarus: Rising, Nintendogs + Cats, Metal Gear, Lylat Wars, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil, Super Street Fighter IV, Animal Crossing, DJ Hero, Kingdom Hearts, Pilotwings, Mario Kart and Paper Mario just to name a few. There were also quite a few new features mentioned by Ninty such as 3D photos thanks to the front-loaded stereoscopic cameras, a “tag mode” not unlike bark mode in 2005’s Nintendogs, improved processing power that’s comparable, if not more powerful, than the Wii and an analogue nub. With so many titles already announced – a lot of them supposedly aiming for the launch of the handheld – the 3DS has the most potential out of the upcoming hardware list to be the best piece of gaming hardware yet.

All of my nerdgasming aside, it’s a safe bet that Nintendo “won” E3 this year. However, with such huge announcements this year, there is very little for Nintendo to expose next year other than a successor to the Wii – hopefully catching up to current-gen specs in HD performance – and franchises like Pikmin, F-Zero (please Ninty, pleeeaaase), Fire Emblem or possibly even a stand-alone Yoshi title. I’m extremely happy that they’ve decided to shine the spotlight the hardcore crowd, it’s just that I’m afraid they may have put all of their eggs into one basket.

Sony: Hoo boy, if you thought Nintendo had a lot of stuff going on during their show, Sony’s was a huge mash of content. The presentation went for over two hours and most of it was already stuff the public knew, however there were some great moments – like Kevin Butler’s “impromptu” speech.

 

[This blog-post is unfinished due the increasing lack of interest in writing it. I started it a couple of weeks after E3 had finished and at that point the news had already spread all over the interwebs so there was really no point in giving my views on it. Sorry peeps.]

A recount of the first half of 2010 – May and June

May: Super Street Fighter IV, Dead Space, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, de Blob, Perfect Dark.

Okay, so the next two months were pretty busy for me gaming-wise – which probably wasn’t such a great decision considering I had exams in June but whatevs. First up was Super Street Fighter IV. I’ll start this off by admitting that when I was younger I was a Mortal Kombat kid, since those were the only fighting games my uncles had (a lot of my childhood gaming sessions were spent with those guys). The first time I really started giving the former a crack was late last year with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and I’ve been a little hooked since. That aside, SSFIV is a great update to the original Street Fighter IV since it features extra characters (both new and old), extra online modes, new ultra moves and the inclusion of rival battles. Along with the addition of rival battles are animated introductions in arcade mode for each individual character (which I personally believe are rather lackluster and don’t really have any point). Other than that the game is practically the same to its prequel, which isn’t a bad thing at all – both games sport a beautiful art-style that make them look like water-painted anime. One of the only problems I have with the game(s) is that though the animations look great and transition seamlessly, the characters’ movements and controls are considerably slower than the original 2D arcade games which threw me off a bit after having just come from SSF2THDR. Perhaps “problem” was too strong of a word for it, but it’s definitely something to remember when adjusting between the two series. Regardless, this game is an absolute blast and I highly recommend it to any fighting fan.

Dead Space is another one of those I-hated-at-first-but-later-fell-in-love-with games. The first time I played it was in November of 2008 when I was house-sitting, so it was played on a 50-inch rear-projection flat screen TV and was displayed in standard-def widescreen. Playing on that kind of kit makes the game look butt-ugly and with the tank controls (which I’ll come back to soon) it was a real deal-breaker for me. However when I saw the game going for around $30 at my local EB, I figured it was worth another shot especially since I’m back at home and now have an HD set with surround sound. And holy crap I loved it this time! The game is incredibly ambient, the atmosphere is tense and the visuals are breathtaking. Contrary to my statement earlier about controls, I somehow managed to enjoy them this time also, however it’s disappointing that horror games seem to disregard the ability to run and shoot at the same time. If I were in situations like the protagonists in these games, I sure as hell wouldn’t be moving so slow or stopping to aim and I don’t see why they should either. That aside this is only the second horror game I’ve found myself being completely involved in, this first being Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem for the GameCube. And it’s practically for the same reason – the setting(s), the atmosphere, the cinematic sequences and the story. Absolutely can not wait for Dead Space 2! (look to my upcoming E3 thoughts for more on that)

Ah Oblivion… I want to like you, but I just find you way too boring. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Bethesda’s work very much (I really enjoyed Fallout 3) but I can just never engulf myself in open-world fantasy adventures (like World of Warcraft). There’s just something about these kinds of games that give me no real purpose to pursue the story/quests. Perhaps it’s the overwhelming nature of open-world fantasy games – pick your race, then your class, attributes, and now you’re off to explore this incredibly vast world at your leisure. If there’s no real urgency to continue playing, then why does it matter what I do or who I help? Oh the world is doomed? Okay, let me just sort through twenty fetch quests of finding peoples’ belongings so I can finally come across one that has to do with saving the world. See I think what I liked about Fallout 3 over Oblivion is that for the most part I wasn’t trying to save civilisation – it was slowly getting by without me – I was just trying to find my father. It gives me a much clearer purpose for helping others because most of them were more desperate than I was. Going from that it makes the Fallout story much more personal and makes me care more about the world because I am slowly shaping the way it’s being rebuilt, without really noticing it. In Oblivion the world is established, therefore the kingdom already has its share of civilians and warriors to look after themselves – why do they need me? I don’t know, this argument makes sense in my head but probably isn’t coming out very well so instead we’ll move on to…

de Blob. Aussie developer Blue Tongue Entertainment really did a top-notch job of creating a fun, vibrant platformer out of this title. The game takes place in Chroma City – a town that celebrates its colourful lifestyle and jazz/fusion/funk music. However the INKT Corporation ends up invading the city and removing any and all forms of colour, leaving shades of black and white. Working against this hostile take-over is a small team of blob-like creatures who operate as a band of vigilantes, calling themselves the “Colour Underground”. Blob (the titular protagonist) arrives on the scene to save them from being captured and put into sort of concentration camps, then works to restore colour to this once vibrant town.
What I love about this game is how its three main elements – music, colour and story – all work to complement each other. Painting the now-dreary buildings progresses the background music to more lively and upbeat tunes, to the point that when you’ve painted most of the area you’re in including its central park and rescued the citizens (called Raydians), they hold they’re own little concert to celebrate as you continue to restore life to the setting. There’s also a lot of nice little challenges to complete as you go along to keep the game not-so repetitive, such as collecting a certain amount of paint to colour a particularly important structure for points or to timed challenges remove INKT propaganda from billboards and replace it with art. It’s an interesting mix of child and adult themes; in terms of children they get to restore colour to a now monotonous looking city, and for adults the story involves pushing back at an invading dictatorship and sort-of slavery (much like what has happened in certain countries/cities around the world). It’s a fun little game that’ll have you grooving along to some really funky tunes.

Aaaaand then there was Perfect Dark for Xbox Live Arcade. It’s basically just a port of the original Nintendo 64 game by Rare with improved graphics and now it finally works without the framerate dipping to something like ten frames per second when more than two enemies are in the room. Why it took them ten years to release an improvement is beyond me, but hey it’s finally out.

 

June: Mirror’s Edge, ModNation Racers, Red Dead Redemption.

Remember how earlier I said there are a lot of games that I hated then eventually loved? Well, Mirror’s Edge was the complete opposite. Since playing the demo almost two years ago I was always interested in giving the full game a try. I’d read reviews that placed the game between “good” and “okay”, but in my honest opinion, good lord this is one hell of a frustrating piece of work. I luckily managed to pick it up for a mere $10 at a Dick Smith store, and rightfully so – the idea is good, the art style is great but the level design and controls show almost no mercy. The first few levels hook you in with very open and obvious paths to follow, which is how most games should start off, however by the end you feel as though you’ve lost any sort of freedom whatsoever. I’ll give you an example; at the beginning of the game Mercury (or Merc for short, he’s the voice in your ear giving you objectives and information) gives you a warning along the lines of if you come across enemies, don’t engage them; run away. Well… In the second half of the game, the developers decided to make that practically impossible, especially in the last couple of levels where you’re constantly fighting off soldiers. Also, since it’s a first-person platformer, you can’t really see or judge yourself in relation to the game’s environment. As in, you will try to hide behind cover but get shot and die a lot; you will fall off a building/platform and die a lot; or you will try jumping to a ledge but miss and die a lot. The game sports a bunch of great ideas, however the execution just gets worse and worse. Like I stated once on either Facebook or Twitter, Mirror’s Edge is like a post-1994 Sonic the Hedgehog game – you think the game is all about running and jumping, but instead it’s just full of obstructions and awkward platform design.

It’s no secret that I’m a kart racer fan (I grew up with Mario Kart 64, and DS is my favourite racer) so it was a no-brainer for me to pick up ModNation Racers. United Games Front did a fantastic job of crafting the same amount of fun Nintendo does, and adding an easy-to-use level and character (called Mods) editor. ModNation is just pure kart-racing hysteria, allowing players to race at incredible speeds through some ridiculously detailed courses. Very rarely have I come across framerate slumps or screen-tearing, which is quite the feat considering the amount of craziness often occurring all at once. I only have two problems with the gameplay – the overly sensitive default steering controls and the often cheap AI rubber-banding. In quite a lot of circumstances I found myself happily maintaining 1st or 2nd place until towards the end of a race when out of nowhere I am barraged with missiles or other weapons leaving me to finish 5th or 6th. I’m all for challenge, but to have it all of a sudden near the end of a race is just too cheap. However as annoying as that can be, I still find myself enjoying the races despite having to restart. Also, since the game is geared toward community involvement under the Play Create Share motto, you can bet that there is an astronomical amount of content that has been been by many players around the world. Already I’ve downloaded a few re-created levels from various Mario Kart games and they all look almost identical to the originals. As with the amount of Mods, there are many characters spanning a host of different games, movies, television shows and cartoons/anime. So if you’re like me and lack imagination when it comes to level design, don’t feel discouraged about not taking advantage of the track editor since there are thousands of other people out there who have you covered. Plus the cut-scenes add a nice layer of story and humour – especially the banter between the two television hosts of the racing tournament. An absolute must-have for any kart racing fan!

As for Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption… I don’t know. I appreciate the idea of a sandbox Western and have had fun with a lot of the missions thus far but (please excuse the obviousness of this statement) it’s just so barren. It’s something that I didn’t take into consideration when anticipating this game. In GTA IV Liberty City felt alive, pulsating with things that always caught your eye no matter what you were doing or where you were going. But since RDR is set in a desert there’s just nothing to really look at or even really feel like you were anywhere until you reach the next town – which could be anything between a one to eight minute (probably even longer if you die on the way) horse ride. Speaking of horse riding, I also found the horse mechanics to be slightly off-putting especially when riding off-road and you come to slight mounds or ditches to then have your horse stop entirely. I just don’t remember having those types of problems in something like Zelda: Twilight Princess for example, but perhaps there just weren’t any of those types of obstacles in the way – I don’t really remember. Also, you can’t swim. Walking into water on either on foot or horse will result in death rather than achieving buoyancy. The story seems interesting (despite being the cliché guy-tries-to-make-new-life-for-himself-but-gets-caught-up-in-more-turmoil template) and the graphics and locales - though barren - are stunning. I’m not hugely far into this game (just a handful of missions into Mexico) so perhaps things will get better and I’ll come to appreciate it more. At least I hope so.

 

So that’s covered most of my gaming experiences over the last six months. Next entry: E3!

A recount of the first half of 2010 – March and April

March: Plants vs Zombies, Beat it!, Pokémon: Soul Silver.

This month was mostly spent playing portable games. Plants vs Zombies is yet another great game from developer PopCap Games (the same folks who made Peggle). I bought the iPhone version since I don’t really play PC games anymore, and it’s just so much fun. The idea is simple; protect your home with defensive plants to fend of waves of zombies. It’s another simplistic tower defense game, but the humour and surprisingly vast amount of defensive options are enough to make this game feel completely fresh. It’s also surprisingly long, making the $3.99AU charge well worth the price.

Beat It! by Glu is an absolutely fantastic new take on music/rhythm games, and is my personal favourite in the genre thus far. It features the two things I love about video game music culture – 8-bit art and electronic tunes. The point of the game is completely different to most music games; instead of pushing buttons in time with some sort of on-screen representation to allow the song to progress, you listen to the tune and try to transcribe an exact copy including all of its instrumentation. Having studied music in school and university, I can tell you that this is a thousand times more preferable than sitting in an aural class (which I hated, by the way). If it’s not enough to just play through the game’s single-player mode, you can opt to write your own tracks using the in-game editor. And if that’s not enough, you can share your beats with or download new ones from others through Facebook via share mode. The game is equipped with a great amount of content plus a community to strengthen its replayability. The app was worth the price when I bought it for $4.99AU, but now it’s available for a mere $1.19. If you’re a musician and/or you love music games in general, do yourself a great favour and nab this one.

Then there was Pokémon: Soul Silver. Everyone knows when the next installments of the Pokémon universe get released, everyone pays attention. Pokémon Silver from 2000 was my most favourite in the franchise, since it introduced me to my favourite Pokémon Totodile and Lugia (fun fact: I named one of my cats Lugia), however this is not the only reason. I remember my mind being absolutely blown upon collecting all eight Johto gym badges, and then being sent back to freakin’ Kanto to collect the original eight badges again with an entirely new storyline! For those who for some reason never played a Pokémon game before, this was huge considering in Red/Blue/Yellow the journey was long enough to sustain about thirty to thirty-five hours of just completing one region. I’d been anticipating SS since buying Pearl back in Christmas of ‘07 when I was getting back into the Pocket Monster universe, and this re-make definitely does not disappoint. If I was to list every new feature of Soul Silver this blog entry would last forever, so if you do want to know I suggest running a Google search for a real review and have a good read. However, I will talk about the inclusion of the Pokéwalker, which is basically a Pokémon pedometre. You can upload a captured monster to the device via infrared on the top of the game cartridge to level it up by walking/exercising. I love this feature since I used to walk to the train station everyday (a good 1.5 kilometres), and not only does it help to gain experience but you can also find items and catch more critters. As I mentioned earlier, Silver was my favourite entry in the Pokémon franchise; but Soul Silver easily takes the cake now.

 

April: Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, God of War Collection.

Okay, so let me start this off by saying that even though I have begun, but never finished, many Final Fantasy games before I still had a lot of respect for the franchise and for Square Enix. That’s right – had. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most boring and ridiculously repetitive games I have ever played. I don’t care what any FF loyalist says – to play through twenty to twenty-five hours of absolute linear garbage just to get the “good bit” where the world finally opens up is just plain ludicrous. The reason why I’d never managed to complete a previous game was because I eventually no longer found myself engaged in the story/characters/gameplay after perhaps 80% of the journey. In FFIV I gave up because I took a break for a few weeks and found myself no longer connected to what’s happened; in FFVII I hadn’t leveled up my party quite enough to defeat a boss (don’t remember which one anymore); and in FFX I actually reached the final boss Sin, but by this point was completely drained of effort to even bother trying to finish. And despite all this I was still fond of the experiences and stories of all of these games for some reason. Perhaps the gamer inside of me just wanted to like these games because everyone else did. I don’t know where I’m going with all of this, so I’ll bring it back to the case in point – FFXIII had me bored since the first hour of gameplay, and I’ve managed to pull myself through nineteen hours into the excruciatingly dull and non-sensical adventure (just finished attaining Sazh’s Eidolon). Also, for those of you who might flame me for calling it non-sensical, here’s a short list of things that have not made any sense to me so far, with me filling in some blanks using the power of assumption:

- Why is Lightning such a bitch? [‘coz she was born a bitch]
- Why is Hope such a pussy? [‘coz his Dad is rich]
- Who the hell is Snow? [some douchey surfy guy in a trench coat who leads some resistance against some faction for some reason]
- Who the hell is Sazh? [a black guy with two guns. He also lets a bird live in his afro]
- Who the hell is Fang? [some chick with an Aussie accent]
- Who the hell is Vanille? [jailbait with an Aussie accent]

These are things that should have been cleared up within an hour or two of introducing each character. If there’s supposed to be some sort of plot-twist in relation to the backgrounds of each character that’s fine, but I would at least like to know their agendas for either their personality or role in the game, and why the hell I should even care about them for that matter. Also, battles have been re-designed to control badly. An RPG should utilise a fair amount of strategy to overcome your opponents – this game hardly does that. I can tell you now this’ll probably be my final Fantasy hurrrrr.

On a total up-swing on the topic of character development, understanding, caring and interaction, Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is a great thriller based around emotional engagement and intense action. What surprised me the most about this title is the use of quicktime events felt incredibly fluid and natural. Having followed this game for quite a while leading up to its release and watching various videos of gameplay, merely observing the action packed moments are enough to make you feel almost intimidated to play it due to the quicktime controls. However if you played this game for perhaps just an hour you no longer find yourself even thinking about having to push and hold a combination of buttons – you find yourself just doing it instinctively. Also the amount of choices, mistakes and possibilities of killing off certain characters is quite daunting considering the impact it has on the story and endings you’ll create. One of my complaints about the game is that controlling your characters’ movements make you feel like a tank almost like the Resident Evil games. Though unlike the RE games you’re not forced to run-away from hordes of undead so the movements can be overlooked. This game was great while it lasted.

Lastly this brings us to the God of War Collection. The collection consists of the first two GoW titles for the PS2 with the inclusion of trophies (up to a Platinum for each game) and high definition up-scaling. Despite having some of those “ugh” moments that most action-adventure titles (I’m talking more about the puzzles and the spiked spinning columns in Hades in GoW 1) the game makes up for it in gorgeously vast locales that still look great even by today’s standards. Also even though the combat is quite shallow (face it, it’s mostly just button-mashing) it’s still satisfying taking down the larger foes like Minotaurs, Cyclopes and Medusa demons. And then there’s boss-battles… Good God (no pun intended). These fights are incredibly epic, especially the moments you engage in quicktime events to ultimately smite them. I personally found the storylines to be well thought-out and entertaining, however the same can’t be said about the protagonist Kratos. Sure he’s been ultimately betrayed by the Gods of Olympus and sure he’s seeking revenge against them, but after all he is human. There just isn’t enough to show it. Though with a game that’s all about kicking ass and doing it in epic fashion, the fact Kratos sounds like a disgruntled case of testosterone (oh wait…) is a small downer compared to an ultimately fun series of games.

 

Next update: May, June and my thoughts on E3.

A recount of the first half of 2010 – The New Year

Wow, okay, so far this year has had a butt-load of great games. I’ll do my best to give my thoughts on everything I’ve played (includes games from previous years that I’d only gotten recently) up ‘til now:

January: Bayonetta, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed, Shadow Complex, ‘Splosion Man.

I really enjoyed Bayonetta. I’m not usually into frantic 3rd person action games, let alone the crazily over-the-top Japanese ones, but holy crap this game was fun. Apart from the over-use of Bayonetta’s sexuality at times and the rather statically boring cut-scenes, this game had me completely engaged. Though you can pretty much just button-mash your way through, provided you stick some well-timed dodges in between, the game controlled like a breeze and the amount of combos/moves were close to overwhelming. Also, the storyline was interesting despite being utterly confusing.

I was skeptical about Arkham Asylum. The game received great reviews from all over, but I’ve never been a fan of stealth titles (I can’t stand playing the MGS games the “right way” – I’m the type of douche who just runs and guns). However this game absolutely blew me away! Not only did I utilise the stealth mechanics when necessary, but I also used them at every opportunity. This game made you feel like an absolute bad-ass hiding in the darkest corners of a room, hanging from a gargoyle waiting to prey upon the next wave of Joker’s hulking thugs. Also the level design of the island itself was brilliant – Arkham is perhaps only a square kilometre in diametre, but the amount of places and content was so cleverly crafted together that the setting seemed almost real. There’s also incredibly fluid fighting mechanics – despite the characters looking like bulked up masses of meat, none of the characters ever felt so heavy. Oh, and Kevin Conroy voicing Batman? Hells yeah! Literally my only gripe with this title is the use of generic Unreal Engine lighting effects. But that’s probably a different blog-post for another time…

As for Assassin’s Creed… Meh. I appreciate the effort put in to try something new, and in regards to character animation and interaction, it was impressive. However I found the stealth mechanics too cumbersome, the enemy AI cheap (running down an open street makes dudes want to kill you. WTF?), and the mission objectives were far too repetitive. On an up-side though, I do enjoy a ridiculous religious conspiracy, so there is that.

On the downloadable front, Epic Games’ Shadow Complex and Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man on Xbox Live Arcade are two fantastic and radically different takes on the side-scrolling platformer genre. Shadow Complex pays homage to classic 2D action-adventure games like Metroid and Castlevania. And does it well.
Much the same can be said of ‘Splosion Man, though I like to affectionately think of it as more the love-child of the classic 2D Sonic and Super Mario games. This game features demanding platforming skills and pattern memory, at a much faster pace. Also it’s hilarious.

February: Mass Effect 2, Shatter, Super Stardust HD.

If you follow video games at all, then you may have heard about this little game named Mass Effect 2, made by some garage developer called BioWare. This game easily took up most of my entire month. On my first play through, it took roughly 30 hours to complete the campaign, and that’s including a minimal amount of side-quests. Major improvements have been made since the first including a streamlined inventory system, smoother framerates and significantly less texture pop-ins. Also the game sports the ability to carry over information from your save file of the previous game such as choices and character customisation to expand upon your tale within the Mass Effect universe. Then there’s the story. My goodness… The only way I can describe it is epic. If you thought that of the original game, then you’re in for a real treat with the sequel. Also if you haven’t bought ME2 then get off your ass and do it now.

Again on the downloadable side are Shatter and Super Stardust HD attainable via the Playstation Network. Both titles are great examples of modern arcade style games. Shatter works like the classic Break Out which is pretty much a single-player version of Pong, however instead of just returning the ball you destroy blocks for points. The real kicker in this though is the suck (L1/2) and blow (R1/2) mechanics, which vary the control you have over the ball’s trajectory and are critical for success.
Super Stardust HD is a top-down shooter that works like the XBLA classic Geometry Wars, in which the left analogue stick controls your movement and the right analogue stick controls the direction of your fire. What sets this apart from GW (and in my opinion, far above) is that Stardust is set on a 3D spherical field, rather than a 2D rectangular grid, and utilises real-time destruction on the asteroid models. The asteroids crumble from the exact point you fire at them, causing rubble to fly in all directions that you must clean after. Though this game gets rather crazy and hectic from all the debris, followed by the inclusion of enemies, completing a single stage feels incredibly satisfying and always leaves you wanting more.

On my next update, March and April.

I'm sorry Nintendo, but I just can't do this anymore...

We've had so many great years together, shared so many fantastic memories... Ever since we first started our relationship back in April of 1997 when my father brought home a Nintendo 64, you had always been there for me.

Super Mario 64. Banjo-Kazooie. Ocarina of Time. Pokémon. Mario Kart 64. Super Smash Bros. Wind Waker. Metroid Prime. Twilight Princess. Super Mario Galaxy. Such great and special moments were shared with you over the last twelve and a half years... And that's why this is so hard to do.

I'm breaking up with you. You're not the company I thought you once were. I was like every other fan of your's when the Wii was unveiled. "Really? You're going in that direction? Alright then, I'll trust you" is what I thought. And for a while it was fun. But you have since slipped away from me and have been seeking attention from those who never appreciated you.

You brought the industry back to life in '83 with Mario. An industry that was quickly withering from an abundance of terrible games. You even went so far as to approve the quality of games that were released on your first console, the NES, with the 'Nintendo Seal of Quality' badge on game covers.

Look at you now. Yes, you succeeded in bringing video games to the mainstream and helping to make our beloved industry be taken with less criticism and cynicism. But at what cost?

You tout that casual games are bridging the mainstream consumer to the gaming market, but does that really mean that those who made you what you are today should suffer? I remember the night I lined up to receive the Wii from my local EB Games at midnight thinking "this is it. This is going to change everything". I was right. Too right.

Now, I'm not saying that you have completely forgotten us hardcore fans. You have brought us some fantastic games such as Galaxy, Brawl and Twilight Princess, but to quote Eddie Murphy, "what have you done for me lately?".

Yeah you released New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but look at the lack of effort that game shows - two unnamed Toad characters, no online multiplayer, a visual presentation not unlike that of the DS version... Then there's Wii Sports
Resort. Now my arm-flapping motions are recognised with more accuracy. So what? And to go back to last year, there's
Wii Music and Animal Crossing: Let's go to the City - two titles that I could write an entire spiel about of their own.

Thankfully the DS is equipped with an enormous library of fabulous games... Too bad your home console's is packed with crap. You continue to argue that the consumer doesn't "need" or "want" high definition graphics. Have you not heard the continuous outcry your fans have made since even the days of the Revolution? You also claim that online play is unsafe for minors due to vulgarities by other players. Though this may be true in a lot of cases, was it really necessary to give such a gimped friends system that utilises numbers instead of usernames? What's wrong with leaving it up to the individual to decide who they do and don't want to talk to, or lo and behold, even leave it for parents to do their jobs? This was just the easiest option for you create - lord forbid that you actually enforce and monitor rules regarding good sportsmanship and a fun community of online gaming.

I want to love you again, but I fear you will never come back to us. I'm willing to bet that you haven't noticed that most of us who have followed you for almost all of our gaming lives have left you. Or perhaps you just don't care. Regardless, I can't keep kidding myself. Perhaps we should just be friends, and I can look forward to enjoying your company every now-and-again... Or is that too much to ask?

The Evolution of Video Game Music and its Development as a Sub-Culture

It’s possible that I may have missed some important points, or gotten something wrong. So please, if that’s the case let me know!
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Electronic entertainment technology is one of the fastest evolving forms of entertainment. Though there have been different forms of electronic gaming dating as far back as the 1950s, the first in-home console dedicated to rendering games entirely in video was released in 1972 by Magnavox, called Odyssey. Since then, ‘video games’ have grown to be one of the biggest entertainment industries, and is still growing. Many people born in the late-70s to late-80s remember the so-called “Golden Years of Gaming” or “8-Bit Era”, being the biggest boom of video game influence over the entire globe. However, though some people may out-grow playing the games they loved as they were children, or perhaps even forgotten what the game involved or was about, they will usually remember the music. And the best known example of this is the legendary Super Mario Bros. theme.

What was it that makes music from the 8-Bit Era (Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) and SEGA Master System, most notably) so memorable? Is it the fond memories people had of playing the games? Is it the way the music was emotionally portrayed? Or is it the simplicity of the tunes due to the less-powered technology of the generation? Arguably, it is all of the above. Many people of the older generation(s) might argue that game music from the 80s conveyed little emotion. However people who grew up playing these games would argue otherwise. Due to the power of the technology at the time if a game’s character falls into a trap and dies, instead of a sound sample of screaming in absolutely agony as their life ends, the game would play a tune that would soon become imbedded into the player’s mind. The same for if a character jumped; instead of a sound of the character’s feet kicking off from the ground and the character perhaps grunting, a short glissando would be played to represent the movement. Eventually these MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) compositions would come to represent actions or emotional moments in gaming – ask anyone how proud they felt once the fanfare played after they completed their first level in Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

As time moved on and the technology within gaming consoles evolved, so did its music. Into the 16-Bit Era (launch of the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES)) the technology allowed composers to write more complex compositions, and they were able to write full orchestrations of works in MIDI. Adding to this, since this generation of consoles was at the turn of the 90s, the music reflected a lot of styles of the decade. Many games involving characters with ‘attitude’ such as Sonic the Hedgehog (mascot of SEGA) incorporated ideas from popular music at the time, like punk and rap/hip-hop. And as the install base grew for gaming, many more popular tunes came to fruition from games such as Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Street Fighter, Dr Mario, Contra, and the Mega Man series.

One of the most notable games from this particular generation of gaming to feature music as part of its emotional make-up was Super Metroid by Nintendo for the SNES. Unlike most games of the time that used music to portray a sense of cheerfulness or intense action, Minako Hamano and Kenji Yamamato’s soundtrack portrayed the sense of mystery as the player was exploring an unknown and alien world. The Metroid series features the first female gaming heroine named Samus Aran, who wasn’t portrayed as your typical pretty-dress-wearing or scantily-clad female. The plot of these games is to hunt a race of alien predators named Metroids. The tone and scenery of Super Metroid in particular is very dark, as most of the time the game is spent inside caves/destroyed facilities. The huge emotional push, however, is that the player is immersed in a completely alien environment; by utilising a very atmospheric soundtrack (though its predecessor Metroid for the NES also attempted this with its main theme). A lot of the game is spent wondering what is beyond the next door, and the music constantly drives that sense of tension. However, the game and music’s pace quickly shifts to that sudden sense of urgency when presented with a boss battle – a challenge in which the player must defeat one of the game’s antagonists, usually by way of a climactic struggle.

Over time more games began to adopt this theatrical type of experience, and into the next generation of consoles (Nintendo 64, SEGA Saturn, and the new competitor Sony Playstation) around the mid-90s many more game developers were dramatic in the ways that they utilised music. Due to the increase in technological power and save space thanks to the transition from plastic cartridges to compact discs, this generation of game music composers began to include live recordings of works and sound effects onto their products.

This revolutionary transition from digital music to fully orchestrated/band recorded works eventually led to the distribution of video game soundtracks. Many games have had huge success in this regard, such as the critically acclaimed role playing adventure series Final Fantasy (most of the music being composed by Nobuo Uematsu) by Square Enix, the first-person shooter Halo series (Michael Salvatori and Martin O’Donnell) by Bungie, and the classic side-scrolling action/platforming series Mega Man by Capcom. As a matter of fact, some games such as WipEout by Psygnosis (now called Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool) were released on mixed mode CDs – a disc that held both game and audio data, but were also playable in CD players.

It was around this time when people not only acknowledged the creative minds behind the game, but also began to acknowledge the composers of these soundtracks. Today, it is not unusual if the composer(s) of a game’s album is/are usually much better known than the person who led production on the title itself. Some hit composers include Stephen Barton (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), Kazuki Muraoka (Metal Gear Solid series), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie), Masato Nakamura (Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2), and the immensely famous Koji Kondo (Super Mario series, Legend of Zelda series).

Due to the increasing popularity, the eventual confirmation of video game music as a genre and then a sub-culture, some of the world’s best known symphony orchestras performed selected works at concerts – the London Symphony Orchestra once played a Super Mario Bros. medley, and the Boston Symphony orchestra once played the Legend of Zelda theme. Due to the huge success and response to live orchestrated versions of hit game works, concerts dedicated to live video game music began to take place across globe.

However, what a lot of people outside of Japan don’t realise is that orchestral performances of live game music actually began in 1991 with the annual concert tour titled Orchestral Game Music Concerts performed by various orchestras throughout Japan. The tour was an annual event that began in ’91 and ended in ’96, having produced five different programmes and recording an album of each one.

The next notable concert dedicated to game music was 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy featuring the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan. The performance, as the title explains, premiered on February 2^nd 2002 and featured selected works spanning the entire Final Fantasy series. Next was the Symphonic Games Concerts series in Germany, which was the first of its kind outside of Japan. The concerts were used as opening ceremonies to the Leipzig Games Convention, the second biggest electronic entertainment convention next to the USA’s E3 (both are annual events). The biggest successes in live orchestral performances of video game works, are the Play! A Video Game Symphony and Video Games Live tours. The two tours travel the globe entertaining fans and classical music lovers alike with their impressive shows, featuring the local professional orchestra in that city. Though the latter is larger and more successful than the former, both are much respected and highly regarded concert tours to professional musicians, the classical audience, and gamers alike.

Video Games Live premiered at the Hollywood Bowl and featured the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on June 6^th 2005. The project was put together by video game composers Jack Wall (Myst series, Mass Effect) and Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Prince of Persia) in the hopes of introducing gamers and the classical audience to each other’s respective genres. The shows continue to sell out in cities across the globe, including New York, London, Taipei, Brasilia, Paris, Wellington and Mexicali. Play! A Video Game Symphony premiered at the Rosemont Theatre in Illinois on May 27^th 2006. It then continued to tour through Europe, Asia, South America, New Zealand and Australia.

A much more popular mainstream innovation that has helped sparked the interest of non-gamers is the music game genre and the use of licensed music. Games such as the Guitar Hero series by Activision and the more recent Rock Band series by Harmonix are prime examples of games utilising music to excite the experience. The developers of these games pay for a license to various recording labels to incorporate popular music into their games, giving people the opportunity to “rock out” to their favourite music, even if they have never played a musical instrument before. An earlier series of music games that have done well with this approach also were the Dance Dance Revolution arcade games by Konami. The games had licensed and original dance/techno music (mostly of Japanese pop music influence) and required the player to dance whilst stepping on the forward, back, left or right buttons on the dance pad with their feet.

On the topic of dance/game music, another massive fan-base of game music is the remixing scene – most notably in the styles of “8-bit music” or “chiptunes”. There are many websites dedicated to communities who re-arrange and remix video game music, some of the largest and most popular being OCRemix.org and 8bitcollective.com. Many of the site’s composers are people who have studied music and/or composition and have acquired internet fame through this digitally artistic hobby. There are also many bands around the world who dedicate much (if not most) of their repertoire to covering game tunes such as The Minibosses, NESkimos and Anamanaguchi.

Video game music has evolved and opened up to be experienced in many different and memorable ways. Though many people will try to disregard game music as a viable genre, there is no denying that it has evolved from ambiguous or monophonic melodies to something that completely enhances, or is the experience. The technological and intellectual innovations that help drive game music forward continue to bring people all over the world new and exciting experiences. Music from video games has seen so many different forms over the decades such as emotional, theatrical, obscure, intense and relaxing. Also, like all music, the styles change to fit the decades/eras that game is developed. Most people do not and probably will not look too much into video game music and what it represents but to a lot of us that do, we believe it to potentially be the classical music of the future.

 

v2

My review on The Conduit.

The Conduit by High Voltage Software is one of the most anticipated Wii titles to date. Sparking oodles of attention across the internet since its announcement last year, it has been every hardcore Wii owner's wet-dream. Since its official release in Australia on Thursday, there is only one question left to ask: does it live up to the hype?

Yes and no. High Voltage Software boasted incredible achievement in regards to its Quantum 3 Engine - the engine that runs The Conduit and HVS's own code that renders almost next-gen quality graphics, lighting and physics on Nintendo's little white box. In this, it is very hard to disagree that they succeeded. The Conduit features top-notch particle effects, clear textures and incredibly detailed character models and environments. For the most part the game runs smoothly, only taking a slight hit in frame rate during battles when things get hectic.

My small problem with the development team putting such a huge emphasis on graphical detail is that it seems as if it limited their environmental design to mostly corridor-based quarrels. Of course, this doesn't necessarily make the battles any less engaging - quite the opposite really, as there is less room for mobility and forces you to think strategically and take cover. However, even by last generation's standards, most popular First-Person Shooter titles feature more open environments for the more intense fights. Hopefully HVS will look into that in a possible sequel, or their next FPS title The Grinder.

The second most talked-about feature of this game is controls - more notably, the customisation. IR control in The Conduit feels great and being able to have complete control over its sensitivity makes it even better. The customisation options include IR/motion sensitivity, bounding box (area on-screen that once pointed at will turn the player's view to that direction) and button mapping. The amount of freedom you're given to alter the controls to your preference make it the second-best control method for FPS titles, next to a keyboard and mouse. However, with the controls as good as they are, I still had a few issues.

The first is aiming high/low. Oftentimes you will come across enemies that are above you, or find an ammo crate at your feet that you are not able to see properly. For some reason the player is restricted from looking directly above or directly below, which for some may not be a big problem, but it made relatively simple situations a hassle. It was quite often that in the heat of battle I'd run out of bullets, find an ammo crate, and would end up jumping over rather opening it because I would aim too low forgetting about the restrictions. Just something to bear in mind.

The second issue is melee attacking. In theory it might sound cool to thrust forward with the Wiimote to bust the chops of some chump with the butt of your gun. However I found it really awkward since my IR sensitivity was fairly high, when gesturing a melee attack my character's view will accidentally shift due to movement of the pointer. It is possible to re-map this gesture to a button press, however I didn't find a comfortable combination. It could just be my bad coordination, but it is still something to keep in mind.

Voice acting in the game is very well done. Apart from Mr Ford's - the main character's - voice (who sounds just a little too cliché action hero-y for my taste), the characters sound quite believable. The soundtrack could do with a little more variety, as it is mostly used to depict intense action rather than intrigue or atmosphere. As for sound effects, they're great as far as sci-fi go. Think of the sounds of some of the weapons from the Star Wars movies.

As for story - not bad. Not Emmy Award-winning material, but pretty good compared to a lot of other action games out there. Something that people might dig at about the story is that it's not very deep and pretty straight-forward. Which to me works, since the game only lasts about six to eight hours. With the amount of story that the player is given, if the game was fleshed out just to add content to appease gamers who judge games by gameplay length, then it would make some moments feel like a chore, which I did not find at all throughout the campaign.

And finally there's online multiplayer... Yeah... Perhaps the game's network settings doesn't like my internet set up (though Xbox Live and PSN work just fine), but whichever the case, I did not have one enjoyable experience. Sometimes just searching for a match would take over seven minutes, and even when one was found, it was very laggy. Which is a shame because given the amount of precise control that one attains, it would make for some very good times. And something I should mention was that I was only searching for games within my region (Australia) - I don't want to know what things would have been like had I tried international. Hopefully it's just my connection and that at least a large percentage of people are not experiencing these problems.

Overall I really enjoyed High Voltage's efforts on The Conduit, apart from the online portion. The Conduit strongly reaffirms what the Wii is capable of in terms of detailed graphics and fluid FPS controls, something that Nintendo fans have been asking for since before the console's release. I highly recommend this to any Wii gamer looking for a more mature, action-oriented experience. I'm sure that at least some people will agree that this is the game Perfect Dark Zero should have been.

Score: 8/10