Part of the problem with blogging on a game of the year, is that the games industry skews its releases to the back end of the calendar, to better catch a bigger slice of the lucrative Christmas pie. It isn't really possible to play all of those last quarter releases before Old Father Time brings his scythe down on the dying year, unless that's all you do in November and December. As attractive as that plan sounds, there are lots of calls - enjoyable, festive ones, mind - on my time in those months and I'm never going to be able to play them all.
Last year, there were two games, released in 2011 but which I only played in 2012 that would probably have kicked their way into my 2011 top 5 - the sublime Rayman Origins (bought in the post-Christmas sales) and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (a Christmas present). This year, I own but have not yet played, several games that have featured in others' GotY lists - Journey, Hitman: Absolution, Far Cry 3 and maybe even the heavily criticised (but I still have a soft spot for the series) Resident Evil 6.
In any event, it hasn't been a vintage year for gaming - this generation is teetering towards its, somewhat delayed, end and console games (on at least the 360) don't seem to have progressed, technically at any rate, for a couple of years. This is only to be expected when a hardware cycle nears its end and, in certain respects, actually whets my appetite for the next generation.
There have been two new hardware releases - the WiiU and the PS Vita - both of which I bought on the day that they were released but only one of which has provided a game in the list below. There was also the revamp of the Nintendo 3DS, in the far superior 3DS XL - another day 1 purchase from me. I've enjoyed all three devices and, in the Vita and WiiU, there is a lot of potential for the future.
Anyway, in reverse order, these are my top 6 (couldn't narrow it to 5 this year) games (of those that I have played) released in 2012.
6. Resident Evil Revelations The first game on my list and also the first 2012-released game I played this year (unsually for a big name game, released in January). I found the demo near unplayable without the Circle Pro Pad add-on but, having bought the game bundled with this Franken-device, it played very nicely. A welcome return to old school Resi 1-3 style gameplay (in part, anyway - there were some action-oriented levels too). I love the newer style Resis too but this was a great change of pace (and also had some great shout-out-loud shocks, particularly when played with headphones - not a game for the daily commute).
5. Lego Lord of the Rings - all the Lego videogames are great fun but this one, based around the films, made me laugh out loud several times. It makes a few tweaks to the normal Lego game template, all for the better. One of the new aspects that I did not think would work, was using the actual voices from the film dubbed onto the Lego Minifigs but this was one of the most refreshing features, enhancing both the Lego-ness and the LotR-ness of the subject matter.
4. ZombiU - I bought ZombiU bundled with my WiiU. As the name suggests, another to add to the growing list of zombie videogames. This time, though, the action is set in London, a setting I thoroughly enjoyed, given my familiarity with the city (one area featured in the game is Bethnal Green - where I used to live - and another is Buckingham Palace, near where I work). Innovative use of the WiiU's gamepad, a harder than usual (these days) difficulty level and perma-death for your character should (when) the zombies catch up with him or her, made this one of the scariest games I've played for years (possibly, ever)
3. Xcom: Enemy Unknown - A fantastic, cerebral, turn-based strategy game with RPG stylings - think human vs alien chess.
2. The Walking Dead A throwback to point and click adventure games, Walking Dead coupled a very strong voice cast to a powerful and genuinely shocking narrative. Based in the same world as the comics and the TV series (and occasionally sharing some of the same characters), it tells the story of escaped convict Lee and the child he befriends and protects, Clementine. There's a large ensemble of characters who interact with Lee and Clem and decisions that you, the player, take have an influence on the direction the narrative takes, even across different episodes. Released in 5 episodes through the year, I shotgunned the first three just after the third was released and then impatiently waited for the final two.
1. Dishonored - its rare that a new IP launches so late in a console's life cycle and even rarer that it is as finely-moulded as Dishonored. The central story of revenge and (to some extent, optional) retribution, was straightforward enough. But the developers created a believable, cohesive world within which the events take place, with a rich mythos hinting at much more (for sequels, perhaps) than was needed or used in the game itself. A range of psychic and combat abilities give the player a fair degree of freedom to complete the levels how they choose to (for example, I got through the final level without killing anyone at all but I know from other players' tales that that level can be a bloodbath. Reminiscent of the sublime Thief series, I enjoyed it from start to finish.
Showing posts with label Wii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wii. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Game of the Year 2010
I feel a bit of a fraud detailing my games of the year. I'm not a games journalist, I can't spend all my life playing games and, most relevantly, I probably haven't played all of what others consider to be the best games of 2010. There are several games released this year that I intend to get when I have time - Enslaved, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Mafia II - that might muscle into this list and there are a few other games, much-liked by others and included in their end of year lists, that don't float my gaming boat - Mass Effect 2 being chief among those. I make no apologies for the latter - if I had played them, it is unlikely they'd have worried number 5 on the list but this is simply a personal view - my favourites of the games that I have played (and have been released) in 2010.
5. Limbo (XBLA)
The first game on my list is also the shortest - you can finish it on a first play through in 5-6 hours and quicker thereafter - but it is a touchingly unique 5-6 hours. I'll not go into further details here, as it is reviewed elsewhere on the blog, only to say if you are after something different, sadly beautiful, strangely alienating but at the same time oddly touching, then this is a must-play game.
4. Fable III
I'm a big fan of the Fable series and, for a time prior to release, this blog turned into something of a Fable III fan blog. Once the game finally arrived, I could see that it had its flaws - there were a few too many bugs than you would expect for a triple-A game and the last section of the game (no spoilers) was a great idea that didn't quite work in practice. Notwithstanding those issues, it was still an excellent game, with a great story, excellent (and genuinely funny) voice acting and Albion looking more beautiful than ever before and just as cohesive as in the past (you can easily believe from the natural and built environments that all areas are part of the same world). If Fable II hadn't been so good, I might have rated this higher but it didn't quite reach the heights of the previous game in the series (though still better than all but three of the other games released this year).
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2
It's-a him, Mario. An old school videogame, in that no attempts were made (nor should have been made) to inject realism into the Mushroom Kingdom, there were enough tweaks from the first game to make this a genuinely original addition to the Mario canon. I was continually surprised to find new worlds utilising new gameplay mechanisms (that were then discarded and not present on subsequent planets), which other, lesser, games would have eked out across several levels. If you are interested in videogames that make no apologies for being just that - games - then Mario's second visit to his galaxy (and best reason for having a Wii this year) is for you.
2. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
A late entry, my having only received the game on the 25th December (although I'm 20+ hours into at the time of writing) but one that very nearly grabbed the top spot. A follow-up of sorts to my game of the year 2009, Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft has once again created a living, breathing (well, until Ezio gets to work), Renaissaince Italy. The story is the same schlocky Da Vinci Code-lite and there are still the annoying modern day interludes but Ubisoft continue to learn from the errors in the first game in the series and the present day sections are kept to a minimum.
I'm barely a third of the way through the main story but there are so many other, interesting and compelling things to do, that I don't even feel that there is a 'main story' and 'side missions' - there is just the world and how I choose to make my way in it.
1. Red Dead Redemption
I loved western films as a child growing up in the 1970s (a time when the TV schedules were full of them and of Sunday teatime western TV serials). That fed into my play - like many boys, I had a cowboy outfit and a holster and six-guns. Red Dead Redemption allowed me to play as a cowboy again but without the embarrassment of being a 39-year old man dressed in chaps and having to explain that I wasn't in a Village People tribute band.
The graphics, varied gameplay, longevity, story, score (that I still listen to now) and voice acting (as good as in the voice acting benchmark of Uncharted 2) were all of the highest level. I genuinely cared about John Marston by the end of the game and the world in which he lived (and there aren't that many games that you can say that about).
Honorable mentions must be given to Heavy Rain (pushed out of the top 5 by Assassin's Creed Brotherhood), ModNation Racers, Alan Wake, Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. All great games that I considered for inclusion in my final five.
2010 was a pretty good year for gaming, if a little less stellar than the superlative 2009. There are some great games scheduled for release next year (I'm particularly looking forward to LA Noire) and I look forward to trying to compile another top 5 in 12 months' time.
5. Limbo (XBLA)
The first game on my list is also the shortest - you can finish it on a first play through in 5-6 hours and quicker thereafter - but it is a touchingly unique 5-6 hours. I'll not go into further details here, as it is reviewed elsewhere on the blog, only to say if you are after something different, sadly beautiful, strangely alienating but at the same time oddly touching, then this is a must-play game.
4. Fable III
I'm a big fan of the Fable series and, for a time prior to release, this blog turned into something of a Fable III fan blog. Once the game finally arrived, I could see that it had its flaws - there were a few too many bugs than you would expect for a triple-A game and the last section of the game (no spoilers) was a great idea that didn't quite work in practice. Notwithstanding those issues, it was still an excellent game, with a great story, excellent (and genuinely funny) voice acting and Albion looking more beautiful than ever before and just as cohesive as in the past (you can easily believe from the natural and built environments that all areas are part of the same world). If Fable II hadn't been so good, I might have rated this higher but it didn't quite reach the heights of the previous game in the series (though still better than all but three of the other games released this year).
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2
It's-a him, Mario. An old school videogame, in that no attempts were made (nor should have been made) to inject realism into the Mushroom Kingdom, there were enough tweaks from the first game to make this a genuinely original addition to the Mario canon. I was continually surprised to find new worlds utilising new gameplay mechanisms (that were then discarded and not present on subsequent planets), which other, lesser, games would have eked out across several levels. If you are interested in videogames that make no apologies for being just that - games - then Mario's second visit to his galaxy (and best reason for having a Wii this year) is for you.
2. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
A late entry, my having only received the game on the 25th December (although I'm 20+ hours into at the time of writing) but one that very nearly grabbed the top spot. A follow-up of sorts to my game of the year 2009, Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft has once again created a living, breathing (well, until Ezio gets to work), Renaissaince Italy. The story is the same schlocky Da Vinci Code-lite and there are still the annoying modern day interludes but Ubisoft continue to learn from the errors in the first game in the series and the present day sections are kept to a minimum.
I'm barely a third of the way through the main story but there are so many other, interesting and compelling things to do, that I don't even feel that there is a 'main story' and 'side missions' - there is just the world and how I choose to make my way in it.
1. Red Dead Redemption
I loved western films as a child growing up in the 1970s (a time when the TV schedules were full of them and of Sunday teatime western TV serials). That fed into my play - like many boys, I had a cowboy outfit and a holster and six-guns. Red Dead Redemption allowed me to play as a cowboy again but without the embarrassment of being a 39-year old man dressed in chaps and having to explain that I wasn't in a Village People tribute band.
The graphics, varied gameplay, longevity, story, score (that I still listen to now) and voice acting (as good as in the voice acting benchmark of Uncharted 2) were all of the highest level. I genuinely cared about John Marston by the end of the game and the world in which he lived (and there aren't that many games that you can say that about).
Honorable mentions must be given to Heavy Rain (pushed out of the top 5 by Assassin's Creed Brotherhood), ModNation Racers, Alan Wake, Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. All great games that I considered for inclusion in my final five.
2010 was a pretty good year for gaming, if a little less stellar than the superlative 2009. There are some great games scheduled for release next year (I'm particularly looking forward to LA Noire) and I look forward to trying to compile another top 5 in 12 months' time.
Monday, 21 June 2010
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Nintendo's help for casual gamers
I purchased Super Mario Galaxy 2 on 11 June, the day that it was released in the UK, from Game (having been suckered in by the tin moneybox they were offering for pre-orders - my love for gaming tat knows no bounds). It is absolutely fantastic, the best game I have played all year (a list that includes God of War III and Red Dead Redemption, both themselves candidates for game of the year). This isn't a review, though - that may (or, frankly, may not - there is a World Cup on, you know) arrive in the coming weeks. Rather, I'd like to highlight what Nintendo has done in the game to 'train' the new gamers that the Wii has brought to gaming in how to play a 'proper' videogame.
And that's what SMG2 is (even though it has some motion control) - a proper videogame. There's a hero, a heroine and a boss. One of those gets kidnapped by one of the others, who has to be rescued by the third (no prizes for guessing which role is played by which character). There are bad guys who can be killed by jumping on them and there are stars. Always stars. Long-standing gamers will recognise the template - essentially unchanged for over twenty years - and will jump (or should that be double-jump?) in without even a second thought. The wider audience that the Wii has brought to gaming, who have been used to 'Just Dance Out Megamix Petz - Samba Edition', don't have this prior knowledge. They don't know, unsurprisingly when you think about it, that jumping on a turtle will kill the turtle and then allow you to use the shell as an underwater propulsion device - and all the other myriad gameplay devices present in a Mario platform game.
Nintendo know this and, possibly driven by lower-than-expected sales of the first game (it sold a lot - nearly 9m - but not as a percentage of higher-than-expected sales of the system itself - 71m and counting), have packaged the game with a 'How to Play' DVD. Most casual Wii games are literally 'pick up and play' - you don't need instructions when using a Wiimote as a tennis racquet, you just use it as you would a tennis racquet (I imagine - I've not lifted a tennis racquet this century). That is not the case with a traditional video game like SMG2.
Any Mario platform game's gameplay is the distillation of over twenty years of development. Expecting my mother-in-law, to choose a casual Wii user at random, to just pick up and play it is unrealistic. While at first glance the DVD is a bit patronising, I think it is a sensible approach from Nintendo and, at the very least, it is heartening that they are still producing core games, while at the same time trying to bring the new audience along with it. Even the choice of physical media is aimed at these new users, who would, I would argue, be less likely to use an online manual.
It doesn't stop there either. Throughout the game (and I'm 40 Stars in, so two thirds of the way to rescuing the Princess or one third to 'full' completion), there are signposts (literally) giving short, written instructions to the player, or larger signposts that launch a video clip showing exactly how a manoeuvre should be completed. This player-assistance reaches its zenith with the 'Cosmic Guide' (a kind of shadow version of 'Rosalina', from the first game), who appears after a few failed attempts at a particular sequence, stating that she can offer some help. If you take her up on this, control of Mario is handed over and the player watches as the level is completed on autopilot (you can jump out of this at any time and regain control). To prevent this making the game too easy, any star that you collect in a level where you have used the Cosmic Guide at any point, will be bronze, rather than gold (I tried it once - just for research, you understand).
Nintendo has received a lot of flak from core gamers this generation over its pursuit of non-core gamers but it tried to compete with Sony in the last two generations on a purely gaming basis and was soundly trounced on units sold. Microsoft, a huge money-bucket of investment, joining in last generation (and fighting out with Nintendo for the title of first loser) also cast doubts on Nintendo's future viability as a gaming hardware developer. The Wii marked a change in emphasis for Nintendo, in trying to make gaming attractive to non-gamers (as there are significantly more of them than gamers) and it has been wildly successful. However, I think that the attachment rate (units sold by games sold) for these new gamers, shows that they aren't a sturdy platform for future profitability. Nintendo need to school them in the ways of traditional games and the 'gaming stabiliser wheels' in SMG2 are, hopefully (for those that wish, like me, that there will still be games of this type in the future) a way of doing this. How successful this approach is, coupled with how many units this game sells, will have an influence on how many more of these types of traditional games Nintendo will develop in the future.
And if you have a Wii and don't yet have this game - buy it now!
And that's what SMG2 is (even though it has some motion control) - a proper videogame. There's a hero, a heroine and a boss. One of those gets kidnapped by one of the others, who has to be rescued by the third (no prizes for guessing which role is played by which character). There are bad guys who can be killed by jumping on them and there are stars. Always stars. Long-standing gamers will recognise the template - essentially unchanged for over twenty years - and will jump (or should that be double-jump?) in without even a second thought. The wider audience that the Wii has brought to gaming, who have been used to 'Just Dance Out Megamix Petz - Samba Edition', don't have this prior knowledge. They don't know, unsurprisingly when you think about it, that jumping on a turtle will kill the turtle and then allow you to use the shell as an underwater propulsion device - and all the other myriad gameplay devices present in a Mario platform game.
Nintendo know this and, possibly driven by lower-than-expected sales of the first game (it sold a lot - nearly 9m - but not as a percentage of higher-than-expected sales of the system itself - 71m and counting), have packaged the game with a 'How to Play' DVD. Most casual Wii games are literally 'pick up and play' - you don't need instructions when using a Wiimote as a tennis racquet, you just use it as you would a tennis racquet (I imagine - I've not lifted a tennis racquet this century). That is not the case with a traditional video game like SMG2.
Any Mario platform game's gameplay is the distillation of over twenty years of development. Expecting my mother-in-law, to choose a casual Wii user at random, to just pick up and play it is unrealistic. While at first glance the DVD is a bit patronising, I think it is a sensible approach from Nintendo and, at the very least, it is heartening that they are still producing core games, while at the same time trying to bring the new audience along with it. Even the choice of physical media is aimed at these new users, who would, I would argue, be less likely to use an online manual.
It doesn't stop there either. Throughout the game (and I'm 40 Stars in, so two thirds of the way to rescuing the Princess or one third to 'full' completion), there are signposts (literally) giving short, written instructions to the player, or larger signposts that launch a video clip showing exactly how a manoeuvre should be completed. This player-assistance reaches its zenith with the 'Cosmic Guide' (a kind of shadow version of 'Rosalina', from the first game), who appears after a few failed attempts at a particular sequence, stating that she can offer some help. If you take her up on this, control of Mario is handed over and the player watches as the level is completed on autopilot (you can jump out of this at any time and regain control). To prevent this making the game too easy, any star that you collect in a level where you have used the Cosmic Guide at any point, will be bronze, rather than gold (I tried it once - just for research, you understand).
Nintendo has received a lot of flak from core gamers this generation over its pursuit of non-core gamers but it tried to compete with Sony in the last two generations on a purely gaming basis and was soundly trounced on units sold. Microsoft, a huge money-bucket of investment, joining in last generation (and fighting out with Nintendo for the title of first loser) also cast doubts on Nintendo's future viability as a gaming hardware developer. The Wii marked a change in emphasis for Nintendo, in trying to make gaming attractive to non-gamers (as there are significantly more of them than gamers) and it has been wildly successful. However, I think that the attachment rate (units sold by games sold) for these new gamers, shows that they aren't a sturdy platform for future profitability. Nintendo need to school them in the ways of traditional games and the 'gaming stabiliser wheels' in SMG2 are, hopefully (for those that wish, like me, that there will still be games of this type in the future) a way of doing this. How successful this approach is, coupled with how many units this game sells, will have an influence on how many more of these types of traditional games Nintendo will develop in the future.
And if you have a Wii and don't yet have this game - buy it now!
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Super Mario Kart on the Virtual Console
As I wrote last year, I have big love for Super Mario Kart on the SNES, what with it being one of the greatest games ever made. If you missed out on the game or, understandably, haven't got room in your house for a near 20-year old console (I still have mine but then I'm a hoarder at heart), 2nd April 2010 is big day for you.
If you have a Wii, that is.
Nintendo are bringing SMK to the Wii Virtual Console for only 800 Wii points. I say 'only' - I have no idea what that is in real money. I have over a 1000 points on my account, all from trading in the Star Points (or whatever they were called) from DS, GBA and Gamecube games, so I've never had to buy any. Anyway, 800 of them have now been earmarked for SMK.
As I mentioned in my SMK review, I have no problem with Mario Kart Wii - in fact, I was playing it earlier today - but there are a few aspects of it and other, later, versions of the game that can grate. Chief among those is the Blue Shell, which batters whoever is leading, destroying your lead (particularly if directly followed by another one). I found it amusing that the promo video had "before the Blue Shell was invented" as a subtitle, as if Nintendo (or, rather, its European marketing department) were tacitly admitting that, actually, the Blue Shell sucks. It also shows the Ghost Valley 1 feather-aided shortcut, the best shortcut of the entire series.
I'm not looking at this through rose-tinted retro spectacles. SMK is still a great game that holds up today - if you have 800 Wii points going spare, you could do a whole lot worse than downloading SMK.
If you have a Wii, that is.
Nintendo are bringing SMK to the Wii Virtual Console for only 800 Wii points. I say 'only' - I have no idea what that is in real money. I have over a 1000 points on my account, all from trading in the Star Points (or whatever they were called) from DS, GBA and Gamecube games, so I've never had to buy any. Anyway, 800 of them have now been earmarked for SMK.
As I mentioned in my SMK review, I have no problem with Mario Kart Wii - in fact, I was playing it earlier today - but there are a few aspects of it and other, later, versions of the game that can grate. Chief among those is the Blue Shell, which batters whoever is leading, destroying your lead (particularly if directly followed by another one). I found it amusing that the promo video had "before the Blue Shell was invented" as a subtitle, as if Nintendo (or, rather, its European marketing department) were tacitly admitting that, actually, the Blue Shell sucks. It also shows the Ghost Valley 1 feather-aided shortcut, the best shortcut of the entire series.
I'm not looking at this through rose-tinted retro spectacles. SMK is still a great game that holds up today - if you have 800 Wii points going spare, you could do a whole lot worse than downloading SMK.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Wii Sports Resort - review
The first Wii Sports game was a curio, designed to ease gamers (and, as it turned out, non-gamers) into the waggle-waggle nonsense that controls most Wii games. It would be harsh to call it a collection of tech demos (that was Wii Play) but it would also be overly praising to call it a proper game. As it came bundled with the console, I don't think anyone felt hard done by but would I have bought it had it been a boxed game sitting on Amazon's virtual shelf alongside the Wii when I bought the console? About as likely as I would have bought (or got my Mum and step-father to buy, rather) the free games bundled with my Spectrum in 1983 (something to do with population graphs of foxes and rabbits)?
That's not to say I didn't enjoy Wii Sports, I did - a lot. I very rarely played it on my own, only with my daughter - 5-and-a-half when I first bought the machine - and, on a few occasions, with the type of non-gaming relatives that Ant & Dec rustle up for their Wii TV ads. I liked the baseball, golf and bowling, the tennis was OK and the boxing was a bit hit-and-miss (pun very much intended) and some of the mini games were good (target golf rocks) but overall it didn't offer much as a videogame experience.
Fast forward two years or so and, in time-honoured videogame fashion, the sequel has rolled up. Rather than a simple retread, the game this time round is bundled with a motion sensor doo-hickey (a technical term) that better measures the motion of the Wii Remote when the sensor end is not directly pointed at the TV/motion bar. [EDIT (thanks Warren!)] The Motion Plus can detect movement on a 1-to-1 basis. which the vanilla Wii Remote could not, meaning the Motion Plus should offer a deeper gameplay experience.
And I think it does. The additional scope that the Motion Plus gives allows there to be more - and more varied - games. Twelve different types this time but some of those hide different variations that, effectively, amount to different games. For example, 'Swordplay', one of the twelve game types, hides a 1-on-1 fight on a podium, a two-player vegetable/fruit/assorted tuht first-to-ten slashathon and a one-player 'take them all on, one by one' fight, the only link between the three being the holding of a sword.
All the games and game types are set on Wuhu Island, a sporting-themed tropical resort (think Center Parcs in the South Pacific). I've read that Nintendo think of the island as a character in itself and anticipate it returning in future games. I'm not sure about that but I did think, as I was flying around the island on 'Island Flyover', a single player plane-based search 'em up, that I'd quite fancy driving around the island on a few Mario Kart tracks.
In all these types of mini game collections, there tends to be some games that you play more than others and that's what I've found with Wii Sports Resort. I've played a lot of Swordplay (my daughter is strangely attracted to whacking my Mii was a sword) and also wakeboarding, dogfight (not part of an Essex simulator but a two player aeroplane duel over Wuhu Island) and table tennis. All of these very much rely upon the Motion Plus as even minute adjustments of the Remote have (and need to have) an onscreen effect (I've noticed this most in Dogfighting, flying your plane by gentle adjustments of your wrist).
Bowling and golf both make a return and both are improved. I'm not sure if it is the Motion Plus that makes bowling better but it certainly plays more accurately (bowling is probably the only 'sport' included in either game that I have played much in the real world) than in the first game. Golf has definitely been improved with the new tech though - your backswing is now important and you can put backspin on the ball, handy for those tricky approach shots/wild slashes from the rough. I've only ever played pitch and putt golf in the real world but it now seems a better model of the golfing experience. Not in a Tiger Woods sense, although the Motion Plus would no doubt help should 'apres golf' be on the menu for Tiger Woods PGA Tour All-Play 2011.
Wii Sports Resort is now being bundled with the Wii (along with the first game), so all new owners, like my in-laws, get to view both games side by side. I wonder if those new owners will do more than scratch the surface of the old game, given how superior Wii Sports Resort is. That has been the case with my in-laws, who've barely played Wii Sports in the face of their growing addiction to Wii Sports Resort. I said above that I wouldn't have bought Wii Sports had it been a boxed game but I did buy Wii Sports Resort (and an extra Motion Plus) and it has been well worth it. Highly recommended, particularly if you have children.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy Wii Sports, I did - a lot. I very rarely played it on my own, only with my daughter - 5-and-a-half when I first bought the machine - and, on a few occasions, with the type of non-gaming relatives that Ant & Dec rustle up for their Wii TV ads. I liked the baseball, golf and bowling, the tennis was OK and the boxing was a bit hit-and-miss (pun very much intended) and some of the mini games were good (target golf rocks) but overall it didn't offer much as a videogame experience.
Fast forward two years or so and, in time-honoured videogame fashion, the sequel has rolled up. Rather than a simple retread, the game this time round is bundled with a motion sensor doo-hickey (a technical term) that better measures the motion of the Wii Remote when the sensor end is not directly pointed at the TV/motion bar. [EDIT (thanks Warren!)] The Motion Plus can detect movement on a 1-to-1 basis. which the vanilla Wii Remote could not, meaning the Motion Plus should offer a deeper gameplay experience.
And I think it does. The additional scope that the Motion Plus gives allows there to be more - and more varied - games. Twelve different types this time but some of those hide different variations that, effectively, amount to different games. For example, 'Swordplay', one of the twelve game types, hides a 1-on-1 fight on a podium, a two-player vegetable/fruit/assorted tuht first-to-ten slashathon and a one-player 'take them all on, one by one' fight, the only link between the three being the holding of a sword.
All the games and game types are set on Wuhu Island, a sporting-themed tropical resort (think Center Parcs in the South Pacific). I've read that Nintendo think of the island as a character in itself and anticipate it returning in future games. I'm not sure about that but I did think, as I was flying around the island on 'Island Flyover', a single player plane-based search 'em up, that I'd quite fancy driving around the island on a few Mario Kart tracks.
In all these types of mini game collections, there tends to be some games that you play more than others and that's what I've found with Wii Sports Resort. I've played a lot of Swordplay (my daughter is strangely attracted to whacking my Mii was a sword) and also wakeboarding, dogfight (not part of an Essex simulator but a two player aeroplane duel over Wuhu Island) and table tennis. All of these very much rely upon the Motion Plus as even minute adjustments of the Remote have (and need to have) an onscreen effect (I've noticed this most in Dogfighting, flying your plane by gentle adjustments of your wrist).
Bowling and golf both make a return and both are improved. I'm not sure if it is the Motion Plus that makes bowling better but it certainly plays more accurately (bowling is probably the only 'sport' included in either game that I have played much in the real world) than in the first game. Golf has definitely been improved with the new tech though - your backswing is now important and you can put backspin on the ball, handy for those tricky approach shots/wild slashes from the rough. I've only ever played pitch and putt golf in the real world but it now seems a better model of the golfing experience. Not in a Tiger Woods sense, although the Motion Plus would no doubt help should 'apres golf' be on the menu for Tiger Woods PGA Tour All-Play 2011.
Wii Sports Resort is now being bundled with the Wii (along with the first game), so all new owners, like my in-laws, get to view both games side by side. I wonder if those new owners will do more than scratch the surface of the old game, given how superior Wii Sports Resort is. That has been the case with my in-laws, who've barely played Wii Sports in the face of their growing addiction to Wii Sports Resort. I said above that I wouldn't have bought Wii Sports had it been a boxed game but I did buy Wii Sports Resort (and an extra Motion Plus) and it has been well worth it. Highly recommended, particularly if you have children.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Half-an-hour heroes
As I've got older, the amount of time that I have to play games has gone down in inverse proportion to the amount of money that I have to spend on them. I remember paying, in pre-Internet shopping days, £45 each for Die Hard Trilogy and Warhammer Shadow of the Horned Rat, two of the first games that I owned on the original Playstation. At the time, the cost of each game amounted to nearly a third of my weekly take home pay and consequently I could not buy very many games. In those far off days though, I had far more time to play the games and played those that I had (even demos) to death finding gaming time was not a problem.
Jumping forward to the present day, a better job, a family, less gaming time, the Internet (and www.gamestracker.com) has led me to amass what CPC6128 on the www.nowgamer.com/forum (feel free to pop in - we're friendly) has termed a 'Pile of Shame'. An embarrassingly large number of uncompleted, unstarted or even unopened games that I have not yet had the time to play.
To try to work down my 'PoS', I've taken to drastic action (well, not as drastic as quitting my job or not seeing my family but you know what I mean). When I play a game for the first time now, if it doesn't grab my attention in that first sitting I seldom persevere and go back for more but instead move on to the next game in the pile. It needn't only be the half an hour (of gaming time) of the title of this post (though it has been in the past) - that was just a nice piece of alliteration. But it does apply to the first long session on a game pulled from the pile.
This policy wasn't a conscious decision on my part. It happened for the first time following a reasonably long session on a game fresh from my PoS. The game was MadWorld on the Wii - OK-ish, highly stylised but ultimately shallow and empty. When I next came to play a game, I couldn't be bothered to continue with MadWorld but instead picked another game from my PoS, the more satisfying (but by no means great, though certainly fun) Mercenaries 2.
Since then, I've played three more half-an-hour heroes - Bionic Commando, where I couldn't get on with central mechanic of the game, the hook-arm thing; Street Fighter IV, which I fully appreciate is a great game but I just don't get on with beat 'em ups (other than Powerstone) and Eat Lead, which is just not very good*. I doubt that I will ever pick up any of these games again (feel free to plead on their behalf in my comments section though).
I suppose this might seem a bit harsh and I might even be missing out on some decent gaming experiences. However I only have a finite time to play games and if a game can't persuade me back for a second sitting after an hour or so, I don't want to 'risk' more of my gaming time on it.
*I appreciate that one man's meat is another man's PeTA direct action campaign, so I feel dutybound to point readers in the direction of 24 Hour Gamer's latest post, as he quite liked Eat Lead -
http://24hourgamer.blogspot.com He's quite convincing - maybe I will try it again........
Jumping forward to the present day, a better job, a family, less gaming time, the Internet (and www.gamestracker.com) has led me to amass what CPC6128 on the www.nowgamer.com/forum (feel free to pop in - we're friendly) has termed a 'Pile of Shame'. An embarrassingly large number of uncompleted, unstarted or even unopened games that I have not yet had the time to play.
To try to work down my 'PoS', I've taken to drastic action (well, not as drastic as quitting my job or not seeing my family but you know what I mean). When I play a game for the first time now, if it doesn't grab my attention in that first sitting I seldom persevere and go back for more but instead move on to the next game in the pile. It needn't only be the half an hour (of gaming time) of the title of this post (though it has been in the past) - that was just a nice piece of alliteration. But it does apply to the first long session on a game pulled from the pile.
This policy wasn't a conscious decision on my part. It happened for the first time following a reasonably long session on a game fresh from my PoS. The game was MadWorld on the Wii - OK-ish, highly stylised but ultimately shallow and empty. When I next came to play a game, I couldn't be bothered to continue with MadWorld but instead picked another game from my PoS, the more satisfying (but by no means great, though certainly fun) Mercenaries 2.
Since then, I've played three more half-an-hour heroes - Bionic Commando, where I couldn't get on with central mechanic of the game, the hook-arm thing; Street Fighter IV, which I fully appreciate is a great game but I just don't get on with beat 'em ups (other than Powerstone) and Eat Lead, which is just not very good*. I doubt that I will ever pick up any of these games again (feel free to plead on their behalf in my comments section though).
I suppose this might seem a bit harsh and I might even be missing out on some decent gaming experiences. However I only have a finite time to play games and if a game can't persuade me back for a second sitting after an hour or so, I don't want to 'risk' more of my gaming time on it.
*I appreciate that one man's meat is another man's PeTA direct action campaign, so I feel dutybound to point readers in the direction of 24 Hour Gamer's latest post, as he quite liked Eat Lead -
http://24hourgamer.blogspot.com He's quite convincing - maybe I will try it again........
Monday, 30 November 2009
Casual gamers into core gamers
There's a theory that the 'new gamers' that Nintendo are bringing to the gaming market, those consumers that had never gamed before Dr Kawashima or Wii Sports, can be weaned onto 'proper' games. That if they knew about Zelda or Advance Wars they would cast aside their Sudoku and Rabbids. David Jenkins, editor of Gamecentral on Teletext, said as much on an edition of the much-missed Games Night on the slightly-missed xleague.tv satellite channel.
I've only got anecdotal evidence to the contrary but this is my experience. My mother-in-law received a DS for Christmas last year from her dog (don't ask). She's in her sixties and, to my knowledge, had never gamed prior to having a go on my daughter's DS a few months before her dog's purchase. Along with her DS she also received two games (from the dog, her budgie or her husband), Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and Sight Training and has avidly played them both since Christmas.
Over the summer, I decided to put the theory that these types of games can lead less experienced gamers towards 'proper' games. I own - and love - Professor Layton and the Curious Village and I thought that this would be a good choice of 'proper' game to lend to my mother-in-law, as it has the trappings of a real game but is essentially a series of unconnected logic problems. I knew that my mother-in-law liked sudoku puzzles and similar, so Layton seemed a good fit for her potential gaming habits (and a cracking game to boot).
The next time I saw her, she cursed me (not literally - she's not a witch or anything) for giving her Layton, as she could not get on with it at all. The 'gamey-ness' of Layton's story and structure meant that she could not enjoy, or even get to, the kernel of the game, the puzzles. If you didn't have to traipse around a village chatting to weirdoes to get your puzzles but instead the game just lined up ten puzzles a day and was called Dr Layton's Puzzle Training I truly think she would have lapped it up.
I'm not going to try to extrapolate this experience across the whole of gaming but I think that the sales figures for traditional games compared to the new gaming experiences typified by Brain Training tell their own tale. Whether Nintendo's market strategy this generation will backfire next generation when those non-gamers they targeted this time around do not see the need to upgrade to improve their gaming experiences (casual games hardly tax the hardware) only time will tell.
And my mother-in-law? She's just bought a Wii....
I've only got anecdotal evidence to the contrary but this is my experience. My mother-in-law received a DS for Christmas last year from her dog (don't ask). She's in her sixties and, to my knowledge, had never gamed prior to having a go on my daughter's DS a few months before her dog's purchase. Along with her DS she also received two games (from the dog, her budgie or her husband), Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and Sight Training and has avidly played them both since Christmas.
Over the summer, I decided to put the theory that these types of games can lead less experienced gamers towards 'proper' games. I own - and love - Professor Layton and the Curious Village and I thought that this would be a good choice of 'proper' game to lend to my mother-in-law, as it has the trappings of a real game but is essentially a series of unconnected logic problems. I knew that my mother-in-law liked sudoku puzzles and similar, so Layton seemed a good fit for her potential gaming habits (and a cracking game to boot).
The next time I saw her, she cursed me (not literally - she's not a witch or anything) for giving her Layton, as she could not get on with it at all. The 'gamey-ness' of Layton's story and structure meant that she could not enjoy, or even get to, the kernel of the game, the puzzles. If you didn't have to traipse around a village chatting to weirdoes to get your puzzles but instead the game just lined up ten puzzles a day and was called Dr Layton's Puzzle Training I truly think she would have lapped it up.
I'm not going to try to extrapolate this experience across the whole of gaming but I think that the sales figures for traditional games compared to the new gaming experiences typified by Brain Training tell their own tale. Whether Nintendo's market strategy this generation will backfire next generation when those non-gamers they targeted this time around do not see the need to upgrade to improve their gaming experiences (casual games hardly tax the hardware) only time will tell.
And my mother-in-law? She's just bought a Wii....
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Wii Games round-up at Eurogamer Expo
The Wii games were the ugly ducklings of the event. Games are, or should be, all about the gameplay but at the Expo the Wii games were in direct comparison with HD PS3 and 360 games and they suffered by this comparison.
I don't play Wii games in public (as you look like an idiot) but I looked at all that were there. The New Super Mario Bros Wii game looked interesting (a 2D Mario game is a novelty for non-handheld console these days and, I suppose, should be applauded.
Wheelspin, the Archer MacLean-developed title looked very fast and good for a Wii game and fills the 'next-gen F-Zero' hole that Nintendo have left.
'Good for a Wii game' has to be the the most damning faint praise that you can think of, incidentally.
I don't play Wii games in public (as you look like an idiot) but I looked at all that were there. The New Super Mario Bros Wii game looked interesting (a 2D Mario game is a novelty for non-handheld console these days and, I suppose, should be applauded.
Wheelspin, the Archer MacLean-developed title looked very fast and good for a Wii game and fills the 'next-gen F-Zero' hole that Nintendo have left.
'Good for a Wii game' has to be the the most damning faint praise that you can think of, incidentally.
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