A Digital First

Last week, I bought what would otherwise have been a boxed game, via digital distribution - something I'd never done before. I have no doubt that, as broadband speeds increase, this will be the primary method of distribution in future hardware generations but I didn't think I'd buy into that method this gen.

The game in question was the fantastic Everybody's Golf on the PS Vita and the reason I bought it via a download was the simple fact that it was cheaper - Sony was offering it for £11.99 via PSN and bricks-and-mortar shops were selling it for upwards of £15. Often with download versions of boxed games, the price is the same, or even higher than their boxed brethren, so this pricing was the exception rather than the rule (at the moment, anyway).

I like the idea of owning a physical product when I've paid money for something but I think that this is, more than anything, habit. I am quite used to not owning physical media any more when buying songs and am getting that way with magazines. Games are just another step along that particular road and I'm sure that, in ten years' time downloads will be the norm.





Bringing retail doom to a High St near you. In a mini skirt




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dynamite Dan II - ZX Spectrum/iOS

As it says in my bio, I've been playing games since 1983, when I received the seminal UK micro, ZX Spectrum, for Christmas. Back then, it seemed like every other game was a platformer of one kind or another and two of the best were the Dynamite Dan games, programmed by Rod Bowkett and released on the Mirrorsoft label. They are now also available in iOS versions - the first game is available as part of the Spectaculator Spectrum emulator app and the second game is a 69p in-app purchase in that app or for the same price as a standalone game (the photos here are from the latter app).

The second of the two DD games, Dynamite Dan II: Dr Blitzen and the Islands of Arcanum, was one of my favourite games on the system (which is saying something on a system that had 10,000 games released for it over its lifetime).

On iPad, the lower half of the screen is given over to the joystick/fire button

It was a flip-screen platformer, set across the titular Islands of Arcanum. In true 80s computer game style, there was a hokey, probably tacked on, plot linking all the onscreen action together. Series bad guy, Dr Blitzen, was enslaving the youth of the world by putting subliminal messages into vinyl pop singles (possibly commentary on the mid-80s rise of the PWE stable of singers? Or probably not...). You have to shut this evil enterprise down by - of course - finding a record on each of the islands and then playing it on the Island's jukebox, before grabbing a jerrycan of petrol to refuel your airship to travel to the next island.

In the 80s, that use of colour on Spectrum was like witchcraft

DDII featured a lot of innovative elements that are still being used in games today - health bar rather than lives, different coloured baddies having a different effect (e.g. a magenta enemy, when touched, would remove fuel (also magenta) from your inventory; a white enemy removing white bombs and so on); different enemy designs on different islands; secret passages that were only available if a particular object was held - which bears testament to its forward-looking approach. It also had - for a BEEP-y Spectrum, anyway - great sound.

The car park island.  As far as I got in the 80s

In common with pretty much all games of this era, it was insanely difficult - I only ever got to the sixth of the eight islands when playing on Spectrum in the 80s and I played it *a lot*. Back then, once you died, the player would have to go back to the very beginning of the game, to island 1 (very frustrating when you'd been on island 6). That type of game dynamic is unacceptable in the molly-coddled world of 21st Century gaming (thankfully) and the iOS version allows the player to manually save as they go along. Saves games can be reloaded after each (inevitable) death, making the game much easier (but still not easy) to complete.

As a result of playing the app I have now discovered, 25 years after I'd originally played the game, that the game is impossible to complete as envisioned in the instructions! Those instructions state that, on the last island (The Pressing Plant) after the record has been played on the jukebox, Dan must find a bomb and plant it in Dr Blitzen's (Pete Waterman's?) office, in order that the Doctor's nefarious plans cannot resurface. I played the record, found the bomb and what I took to be Blitzen's office (gold records on the the wall) but there's no way of planting or detonating it! I did wonder if I was doing something incorrectly but after a quick look around the internets, I saw it confirmed that the game could not be fully completed. I don't blame the programmer, Rod Bowkett, for who DDII was to be his last game before becoming a full-time musician/sound designer. He must have struggled considerably to put such game as there is into the Spectrum's 48k. No, I blame Mirrorsoft owner and pension-plunderer, Robert Maxwell. Just, y'know, because...

Rod Bowkett still has a public profile now (no mention of DD, sadly). It would be great if premier old games magazine 'Retro Gamer' could interview him regarding these games (and why the ending never made it into the finished game).

This screen features a VERY annoying shortcut

Despite the anti-climax at the game's end, it is still a very playable and enjoyable game, even today - I was playing DDII on iPad in preference to playing on my PS Vita while my family was watching The Voice - and great value for money. After 'completing' DDII, I found myself top of the worldwide Game Center leaderboard for the game, the first time I've been top of anything. Admittedly, there are only 33 entries in the leaderboard but still...

Xtendplay (Xbox 360) Review

As a - ahem - 'veteran' gamer, I've been playing videogames for over thirty years. At times I think that this has had a noticeable impact on my hands and wrists (because, y'know, gaming's the only thing that could have had such an effect). Often, the morning  after a lengthy session, my hands feel a bit 'tingly'  (sorry about the medical jargon there) and stiff - not exactly uncomfortable but a sensation is present where usually there is none.

Yes, it is fugly

When I read about the xtendplay controller extender, I thought that it would be worth a try to see if it alleviated this issue. The product's  basic premise is that 'gamers' claw', the stiffness and discomfort following lengthy play, is caused by the gamer gripping the hard plastic of the controller while playing. With the xtendplay it is the product that grips the plastic, whereas the user instead grips the moulded foam of the xtendplay.  The controller fits snugly and securely (no wobble) into the foam extension (see photos). 

The extended length of the unit allows the controller to rest against the gamer's stomach, thereby removing another cause of wrist stress - weight is being borne by the gamer's midriff, rather than all on the wrists. With this in mind, the bottom of the xtendplay  has a convex profile, an allowance for gamers with *coughs*, a bit of timber about the middle.

Snug

I have the 360 version and there is also  a PS3 version.

I've been using the xtendplay  for over 9 months now and, for me, it has been a success. I've not played games any less, yet my wrists and hands, while not 'tingle-free' have felt noticeably more comfortable the morning after a heavy gaming session and no problems at all while actually gaming. Early on in those six months, when yet to be convinced of the benefits, I removed the extension before playing EDF: Insect Armageddon for a lengthy Saturday night/Sunday morning session. EDF:IA is a high-energy game, with a lot of intense controller use. In the more high-octane moments towards the end of the game my hands (tightly grasping the controller) and wrists, possibly having been spoilt by the benefits of the xtendplay in the preceding weeks, were screaming in agony. Since that time my 360 controller has worn its attractive green sheath continually.

On the downside, it does take some getting used to. I had a palpable feeling, early on, that my hands just weren't 'quite' big enough to hold my new Franken-controller's monster. I wondered if this would hinder my mad  gaming skillz by  not being able to reach buttons as easily or as quickly. However, I don't think that that has happened and that any mistakes made while gaming with the xtendplay have been mine alone.  

If this review tempts you into buying the xtendplay and you, like me, have dainty girl's hands, you might feel the same way initially but it is worth persevering with, as after a time it is far more comfortable and 'right'.

In the few days after being hacked, I barely played my 360. Instead I played Resident Evil Revelations on 3DS (with Circle Pad Pro). I do most of my gaming at weekends and my hands and wrists, after a weekend of 3D survival horror, were noticeably more painful on Monday morning than the when gaming on the extended 360 controller.

Another niggling doubt in my mind is that, while the xtendplay  is easier on my wrists, the tension created between my hands, arms and shoulders by wedging it against my stomach might not be doing my shoulders any good. However I've no noticeable problems in my shoulders to date from this, so it is probably an unnecessary worry on my  part . 

When I bought my xtendplay last year, I paid £15 for it. For the purposes of checking for this review, I discovered that Amazon are now knocking them out for £6.99 (on 360 & PS3), which is an absolute bargain. If  I didn't use the Power A Pro Elite third party pad on PS3, I would definitely buy an xtendplay for PS3 as well.

Hacked Off

Earlier this week, my Xbox Live account was hacked. My Microsoft points balance of about 1600 was all but emptied and an attempted purchase of a further 6000 points only failed as the credit card linked to my account had expired. According to my purchase history 'I' had purchased three items of FIFA 12 'Ultimate Team' DLC (I hadn't). According to my Windows Live account, I'd added another email to my account (nope) and changed my security to one in Chinese (hmm, no).

I'd had a hard, tense day at work and really wanted to unwind by shooting some terrorists in the face (MW2) followed by an early night. As it was, my evening was completely free of face-shooting and I was up until gone midnight deleting stuff and wandering around the internet changing other passwords and generally upping my security levels. Not what I'd wanted to do at all.

I'd been aware of a hacking problem on Live, particularly in relation to FIFA DLC - one of my friends list had had an identical hack before Christmas and you don't have to search far on the internet to find similar stories. Indeed, the verb  'to be FIFA'd' has started being used  ("I have been well and truly FIFA'd").

I'd never succumbed to a phish for my log in details and my password was judged 'strong' but a fat lot of good that did.  The Internets say that there's a weak link in Microsoft's security software and that may be the case (I'm no expert).  There's clearly something wrong given  the number of incidences of hackage reported on the Internet.  

I reported  it to Microsoft, who said that my Live account would be locked and the details  passed to its 'investigation team' and that this was likely to take up to 3 days.  12 hours later, I received an email from the investigations team, which said that they had verified that unauthorised access had taken place and then gave me a code for Microsoft points  slightly in excess of those that I had lost.  All I need now is for my account to be unlocked and I'll be back in the game (this hiatus may do something to remedy my FIFA addiction - 80+ hours to date).

Given how quickly my claim was agreed, coupled to the fact that early reports of this problem last autumn stated that accounts were being locked for up to a month, has led me to think that Microsoft know what's causing the issue and don't want to fix it.  The 360 is coming to the end of its lifespan, with its successor expected to be announced, in some quarters, at this year's E3.  Who knows what shape Live will take in the next generation of Xbox consoles?  Do Microsoft consider it cheaper to pay off those unlucky games like me who've been hacked, compared with the cost of altering deep-grained issues within Live's code, when Live for the Xbox 720 (this almost definitely won't be its name) may be far different?

Game of the Year 2011

It's been a long time since I blogged (again), as  that pesky 'real life' thing has been interfering in my free time (and I like to use at least some of that which I have left to actually play games!).  Hopefully, I'll get more time in the New Year.  I had hoped that my family  taking over the TV for  X-Factor 2011 would allow me some time for gaming but, no - I laid into my DS and 3DS instead, the better to block out the tuneless wailing and, frankly, shouting (Kitty, I'm looking at you, through eyes squinting in pain) that was on my TV.


Anyway, as I did last year, I thought I'd post on my favourite games from those that I'd played during the year. I haven't played everything this year - there are some triple A releases (Gears of War 3, Skyrim) that just don't float my gaming boat - and I have a couple (most notably Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword) that might have a claim to sneaking in my top 5 when I actually get around to playing them.  However, there's not much point of a 'best of' list being posted in April the following year, so here it is, in reverse order for an illusion of tension - 


5. Batman: Arkham City - the sequel to what was my game of the year  2009 (Batman: Arkham Asylum) and not as good as that superbly structured and balanced game.  The story and look of Gotham City (aka Arkham City, a prison built in the fenced-off streets of parts of Gotham) were great, as was the respect shown towards the Batman mythos.  There was too much unnecessary padding of side missions though and I hope that any subsequent Batman game from Rocksteady is more focussed. Admittedly, I didn't have to do any  side missions (or I could have picked and chose those that I wanted) but there's a bit of OCD towards collecting in most gamers - I blame Mario - and, in getting sidetracked, I lost some of the focus of the central narrative.   A special mention to the boss fights - far better than in the first game and one (Mr Freeze) was one of the best boss fights I've ever played.

4. Mario Kart 7 - an excellent entry into a series I've been playing for nearly twenty years. It followed the tried and tested template of 32 courses (16 new, 16 plucked form earlier iterations of the game) split into 8 cups, with various unlockables (characters, kart modifications) to pick up along the way.  The addition of underwater and in the air paths through courses gave a sense of 'verticality' to the courses (and the shortcuts available in them).  I was sceptical about this verticality at first but it really has an impact of gameplay and pathfinding.  It also has  the best use of 3D on the 3DS that I've yet seen. 


My only gripe is that there's too many Mario Kart Wii courses on the retro cups - I've nothing against the courses picked (Maple Treeway, Coconut Mall, Mushroom Gorge and Koopa Cape), which are all very good (the former two are probably my favourite courses on MKW). It's just that I still regularly play MKW and one of the great things about playing retro courses in successive Mario Karts is that they take you back to courses that you've not played for a while - this time around, I still play  a quarter of the retro courses on offer in another game.

3. LA Noire - a game that can be summed up as a James Ellroy's LA Quartet simulator  - and just as good as that sounds. Spooky facial capture tech puts recognisable actors (including many of the cast of Mad Men and  John Noble from Fringe)  into the game. The facial expressions  used by the actors are a key part of the gameplay, as you try to 'read' them in interview sequences, something that had never been done in a game before (and that worked very well). Excellent narrative (even if there are a few holes and too many 'borrowings' from Ellroy) and interview sequences.  


Unfortunately, the developer went into administration shortly after the game was released but hopefully another developer has picked up the tech used in the game - it showed massive promise

2. Portal 2 - It's not often that I laugh out loud at a videogame (50 Cent: Blood on the Sand excepted) but I did, several times, in Portal 2.   Intelligence, wit and humour are three attributes not always found in videogames but Valve's excellent first person puzzler had them in spades. As with the first game (that I did not even play until after this one), the gameplay revolves around the portal gun - a device that shoots two (at any given time) holes into reality that then create a portal between them that the player can pass through. The puzzles are essentially a series of passages from A to B but that brief description does not do them justice.  You get  a sense of real achievement (which is always far better than an Achievement) after working out a particularly tough puzzle without resorting to an internet guide. This was my game of the year until today (30/12), when I reached the end of -

1. Uncharted 3 -  Uncharted is one of Sony's console exclusive crown jewels (along with Killzone and Resistance, neither of which I'm that keen on).  Uncharted 2 was excellent in every area (still only my third favourite game on 2009 though, behind Batman and Assassin's Creed II) but this one surpasses it.  The same treasure seeking template as before (think 'Indiana Jones' (but try not to think of the awful fourth film)) but this has been polished to perfection.  The story was spot-on and didn't succumb to the narrative foolishness in the final reel as the previous two games.  Some of the set pieces were breathtakingly good - straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. The environment effects - fire, water - were superb, giving a true sense of danger to what you were doing onscreen and Nathan Drake is a genuinely engaging central character.  All of the characters were excellently voice-acted, particularly Drake and the always in need of rescue Victor 'Sully' Sullivan (Princess Peach to Drake's Mario).  Special mention goes  to the music score, which was pitch perfect for the game.
Well, that brings to an end my games of the year.  Honourable mentions must be given to those that  just missed out -  Little Big Planet 2 (in the top 3 until the autumn), Super Mario 3D Land, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and FIFA 12 (the best football game I've ever played).  Same time again next year...

If it's in the game, it's in the game

This year's iteration in the FIFA franchise came out a few weeks ago. I bought it on the day of release and have been playing it, if not solidly then consistently, since then. It is an excellent game, far better than last year's more defence-minded game and as good, if not better, than FIFA10 (up until now my favourite football videogame ever).

But I'm not blogging about my silky FIFA skills (with my win percentage bumping along at around 20%, that wouldn't take long). Last Saturday, I went to see real football, West Ham United v Blackpool and thoroughly enjoyed a 4-0 saunter for the Cockney Boys. My seat for the day was in one of the stands to the side of the ground,  just below the TV gantry, almost in line with the centre circle. The view from my seat was very similar to the default camera option in this year's FIFA. Such is the realism of FIFA12 (graphically - at a distance, anyway - as well as in the gameplay), there were times during the West Ham game when I was watching the on-field action instinctively thinking 'finesse that shot' or 'pressing tackle!' and imagining the corresponding button press as I saw play develop. I'd then remember that this wasn't a virtual game of football, that it was an actual one.

These thoughts came like they do when playing the game - jumping into the 'twitch reflex' part of my brain, rather than the rational, thinking-monkey, bit (the rational bit then kicking in, rolling its eyes at 'twitch' and reminding Team Brain that its body wasn't holding a controller). I've had this feeling before - for example, when scanning the tops of flyovers for giant ants after a lengthy EDF 2017 session - but never from a sports game. I think this is testament to the immersive nature of this year's  FIFA and it is difficult to predict how EA can improve upon this sense of immersion  in the  future (not that that will stop them bringing out FIFA13, of course).  

RIP Funland

Last week I was in the Piccadilly area of London on my lunch break. As is usual when I'm over that way, I popped into the Trocadero to have a wander around Funland, which is probably the largest arcade in Central London (if not England). Or rather 'was' the largest arcade in London, as it has recently closed down.

I'd gone to Funland for years - as much as anywhere, it was 'my' arcade when in my twenties. I was never a frequent visitor - although comparatively wealthy next to students nowadays, even back in the mid-90s students didn't have spare cash to feed, in £1 coin increments, to Namco, Sega, Konami et al. I was a regular visitor though - probably dropping in every couple of months or so.

As with every arcade - except Segaworld - that I have ever been to (and I'm a gamer who grew up on the English South Coast, so I've been to quite a few), Funland was, even at its late 90s height, slightly seedy and down at heel. That has always been part of an arcade's charm, I think - the juxtaposition of the advanced gaming technology, with the sticky carpets, cigarette smoke (pre-ban, that is) and dingy lighting.

It had one of the best range of arcade games around - this was where I first played Daytona, in a fantastic 8-cabinet array - and used to get the latest cabinets, probably before anywhere else in the country. I've read that, at its height, gaming journalists would often visit to see the latest games in action (and then, no doubt, stay on them for ages for £1 with their mad gaming skillz).

As well as a great range of arcade games, there were a few other money-spinning entertainments in Funland. Dodgems, a mini bowling allay and, for a time, a range of games that you could win paper tokens on, that could then be exchanged (after amassing a huge number of them) for a range of tacky prizes, as at a funfair. I don't think I ever went on any of those - it was always all about the videogames for me - but I remember that, at one point, the dodgem circuit was lined with classic arcade cabinets that were nearly always empty and so good for a quick, wait-free game.

For a time Funland was co-located in the Trocadero with Segaworld London - a misguided attempt to create an interactive theme park by Sega in the years when they seemed to lumber from one massive mistake to another (blow your marketing budget for your new console on sponsoring a football team?). However, Funland was there before Segaworld opened in 1996 and it was there after Segaworld closed down in 2002 and, indeed, took over some of Segaworld's floorspace. This multi-floor expansion made Funland somewhat of a maze and, as I'd only go over every 6 months or so after I stopped being a student and had to get on with 'real life', I would frequently get lost while wandering around, wondering where the exit was. Fortunately, there was never a fire...

I checked the internets when I returned to work - it seems the arcade closed in July 2011. The official website (www.funland.co.uk) cites a 'power failure' (that has also knocked out their phones) but that is unlikely as the rest of (what's left) of the businesses in the Trocadero had electricity to burn on my visit. And 2 months to fix a power failure? The power was back on in Baghdad quicker than that. There are reports on the internet that the real reason was somewhat different but, what is definitely true is that the upper levels of the 7-storey Trocadero complex are being redeveloped as a hotel and I wonder if the landlords were all that keen on what was, by the end, quite a seedy arcade occupying the levels of the building below their shiny new hotel. Whatever the real reason for the closure was, the arcade docent look like re-opening.

I think that my admission that I only went every 6 months in its latter years, is probably indicative of why arcades are thought to be a dying business. I would go on a weekday lunchtime in the heart of tourist London and it was never all that busy. Given the overheads attached to such a venture, in that high-rent location (the electricity bill alone must have been astronomical), it is difficult to see how it lasted as long as it did. With the massive advances in console entertainment in the near 20 years I'd been going to Funland, gamers simply do not need to shovel pound coins into arcade machines to get high quality gaming fixes. Put simply, you can't run a large-floorspace business in Central London based on hardcore dance gamers (Funland was something of a shrine for dancing games, apparently) and nostalgic twice-yearly gamers like me. I am slightly disappointed that I never got the opportunity to take my daughter (who loves arcades) along to Funland (my wife, on the other hand, is probably quite relieved).