Breaking news (this must be what it is like to work for the BBC).
The Chancellor (UK Finance Minister) today (22 June 2010) announced that the planned tax break (I'd blogged about this before) for the video games industry in the UK has been axed with immediate effect.
I think that this is a short-sighted move that could hasten the loss of skilled gaming industry personnel overseas (hello Canada). As a high-tech industry, gaming is a growth area, exactly the type of knowledge-based industry that the incoming Government had said they wanted to support. I haven't seen any industry comment as yet (the announcement was only an hour ago) but it is unlikely that they will be thrilled, given how long they have lobbied Governments of varying hues for such breaks over the years.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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!
Monday, 7 June 2010
iPad - a game changer?
I bought an iPad last weekend (please insert your own 'more money than sense' joke here). I think it is a fantastic piece of kit and it is now my primary device for surfing the net, reviewing my RSS feeds and reading/sending email. Or accessing IMDB while on the sofa, having had a 'what's he been in before?' moment while watching TV (who'd have thought that someone from Sky 1's 'Dream Team' would next turn up as the big villain in 'Flash Forward'?). A better of way of putting it would be to say that it is my leisure' device', with my laptop being my 'business device', used for drafting documents (though Pages is available as an App) or anything that needs printing out. Drafting with the touchscreen keyboard is fine in short bursts - this blog post has been wholly drafted on my iPad, with the Blogpress App - but if I was drafting anything more weighty, I'd still be reaching my my MacBook.
The iPad isn't perfect but it has proved even better than I thought it would be. Magazines and comics look great on the screen and, if enough publishers chose this as a distribution medium, I think it would become my primary method for consuming them (take note 'Future Publishing').
But this is a videogame blog, so I suppose I should talk about its gaming performance. I've had an iPhone for a year and, while I have some games on it, as a gaming platform it is hampered by the small screen and lack of buttons. Some games that don't require constant contact between the player and the screen - Angry Birds, for example - work very well but many, more action-oriented, games - such as iDracula - have virtual 'buttons' (used to control the on-screen action), on the touchscreen itself, a technique I do not think works very well. I'm a pen-pusher and, as such, have never done a proper day's work in my life, giving me the dainty hands of a Jane Austen heroine. When manipulating virtual buttons during iPhone games, however, it seems as if I have the crushing fists of a cage fighter, obscuring a third of the screen as I go about my my ham-fisted quest to die as quickly as possible.
That is not the case with the iPad, as the large screen can easily accommodate a few virtual buttons without risk of the player obscuring the touchscreen. I've returned to the afore-mentioned iDracula and found it far more enjoyable than on the iPhone, even with some pixellation, as the buttons (and my hands) don't clutter the on-screen action.
All the games I have on iPhone have been uploaded onto my iPad and, for the most part, they work well. You can either run them at their original resolution, with the game then appearing as an iPhone-sized rectangle in the middle of the iPad screen, or you can increase its size, which is enough to fill the iPad screen. The latter option does result in some pixellation, which does no favours to text-heavy games but is passable for games such as Angry Birds that have minimal text. A special mention should given to Metal Gear Solid Touch, a game I bought for the iPhone ages ago but didn't get very far with, due to 'big hands' hands syndrome - it was automatically maximised for iPad, with no pixellation. Still not a great game but it was a nice to see.
Angry Birds actually has an HD version, optimised for iPad but, if you have the original, I don't think it is worth the extra expense (£2.99, as opposed to the iPhone version's 59p), as it works perfectly ably when upscaled on the iPad. It is worth noting that your progress on iPhone games won't always be transferred when you sync the game to the iPad - some do (Beneath a Steel Sky) and some don't (Angry Birds). For those that don't, you will have to start from the beginning again, which isn't really a problem for something as immediate (and short-burst) as Angry Birds.
The one native iPad game that I have bought so far is Real Racing HD, a spruced up version of an iPhone game that relies on the device's accelerometer for the steering, with the iPhone (and now iPad) effectively becoming the steering wheel. It was £5.99 and I'm a little disappointed with it, though appreciate its technical prowess. Apart from anything else, holding the heavier-than-you-think iPad like a steering wheel is a feat of endurance itself for long periods. The game looks like a higher resolution version of an early PS2 game and it plays reasonably well within that limited purview but isn't, control method notwithstanding, a particularly revolutionary game.
And revolutionary games are what I want from the iPad. I believe that it is a truly viable mobile gaming platform (something that I don't think that the iPhone is, for me anyway) and I hope that developers can harness the unique qualities of the iPad to deliver some great games. I'm particularly hoping for a truly accessible RTS title but I hope that the development community will deliver far more innovative games than just that. I won't be selling my 360, PS3 or Wii anytime soon (well, I've not sold any console I've ever owned, so that's a misleading claim) but I think that the iPad has the potential to be my mobile platform of choice. Mobile-ish anyway - the size of it would tax the BFG's pockets...
The iPad isn't perfect but it has proved even better than I thought it would be. Magazines and comics look great on the screen and, if enough publishers chose this as a distribution medium, I think it would become my primary method for consuming them (take note 'Future Publishing').
But this is a videogame blog, so I suppose I should talk about its gaming performance. I've had an iPhone for a year and, while I have some games on it, as a gaming platform it is hampered by the small screen and lack of buttons. Some games that don't require constant contact between the player and the screen - Angry Birds, for example - work very well but many, more action-oriented, games - such as iDracula - have virtual 'buttons' (used to control the on-screen action), on the touchscreen itself, a technique I do not think works very well. I'm a pen-pusher and, as such, have never done a proper day's work in my life, giving me the dainty hands of a Jane Austen heroine. When manipulating virtual buttons during iPhone games, however, it seems as if I have the crushing fists of a cage fighter, obscuring a third of the screen as I go about my my ham-fisted quest to die as quickly as possible.
That is not the case with the iPad, as the large screen can easily accommodate a few virtual buttons without risk of the player obscuring the touchscreen. I've returned to the afore-mentioned iDracula and found it far more enjoyable than on the iPhone, even with some pixellation, as the buttons (and my hands) don't clutter the on-screen action.
All the games I have on iPhone have been uploaded onto my iPad and, for the most part, they work well. You can either run them at their original resolution, with the game then appearing as an iPhone-sized rectangle in the middle of the iPad screen, or you can increase its size, which is enough to fill the iPad screen. The latter option does result in some pixellation, which does no favours to text-heavy games but is passable for games such as Angry Birds that have minimal text. A special mention should given to Metal Gear Solid Touch, a game I bought for the iPhone ages ago but didn't get very far with, due to 'big hands' hands syndrome - it was automatically maximised for iPad, with no pixellation. Still not a great game but it was a nice to see.
Angry Birds actually has an HD version, optimised for iPad but, if you have the original, I don't think it is worth the extra expense (£2.99, as opposed to the iPhone version's 59p), as it works perfectly ably when upscaled on the iPad. It is worth noting that your progress on iPhone games won't always be transferred when you sync the game to the iPad - some do (Beneath a Steel Sky) and some don't (Angry Birds). For those that don't, you will have to start from the beginning again, which isn't really a problem for something as immediate (and short-burst) as Angry Birds.
The one native iPad game that I have bought so far is Real Racing HD, a spruced up version of an iPhone game that relies on the device's accelerometer for the steering, with the iPhone (and now iPad) effectively becoming the steering wheel. It was £5.99 and I'm a little disappointed with it, though appreciate its technical prowess. Apart from anything else, holding the heavier-than-you-think iPad like a steering wheel is a feat of endurance itself for long periods. The game looks like a higher resolution version of an early PS2 game and it plays reasonably well within that limited purview but isn't, control method notwithstanding, a particularly revolutionary game.
And revolutionary games are what I want from the iPad. I believe that it is a truly viable mobile gaming platform (something that I don't think that the iPhone is, for me anyway) and I hope that developers can harness the unique qualities of the iPad to deliver some great games. I'm particularly hoping for a truly accessible RTS title but I hope that the development community will deliver far more innovative games than just that. I won't be selling my 360, PS3 or Wii anytime soon (well, I've not sold any console I've ever owned, so that's a misleading claim) but I think that the iPad has the potential to be my mobile platform of choice. Mobile-ish anyway - the size of it would tax the BFG's pockets...
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Mario Power-Up energy drink & Animal Crossing toys
Regular readers will know that I love gaming ephemera - stick a gaming theme on any old rubbish and I will be working my way to the front of an orderly queue to buy it.
Imagine my excitement of seeing this in my favourite quirky tat shop, Artbox (www.artbox.co.uk)
I'm hoping that I'll become invincible when I drink it, or possibly twice my usual size (it isn't a diet version).
It's my daughter's birthday at the end of the month. She's a fan of Animal Crossing on DS and she'll be getting the Wii version for her birthday. She'll also be getting these, that I got from Forbidden Planet (a short walk from Artbox in London's West End) -
Imagine my excitement of seeing this in my favourite quirky tat shop, Artbox (www.artbox.co.uk)
It's-a me - reskinned Red Bull...
I'm hoping that I'll become invincible when I drink it, or possibly twice my usual size (it isn't a diet version).
It's my daughter's birthday at the end of the month. She's a fan of Animal Crossing on DS and she'll be getting the Wii version for her birthday. She'll also be getting these, that I got from Forbidden Planet (a short walk from Artbox in London's West End) -
No Tom Nook, unfortunately - too busy counting his money
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Lips - 360 review
I can't sing - my voice is so heroically bad, I would fail an audition for Jedward. Small children run, screaming, from the sound of my singing voice. Cats actually cry in my singing presence. You would think, then, that I'd try to avoid a karaoke game if at all possible. You'd be wrong, I have no problem in making others suffer and I find the 360-exclusive sing-a-long-a-game Lips fantastic family-based fun.
The game entails singing along, at the right time and pitch, to onscreen lyrics, thereby building your score (and/or receiving medals, the collection of which upgrades the overall rank conferred upon the player). Combos (continually hitting the right notes) build your score further (or not, in my case), as do motion-sensing actions with the mics (and 360 controller). At the end of each song, you are awarded a grade (from 'biscuit' to 'infinity' - quite a span) and can then view online scoreboards to show how you're doing against the world - I have somehow managed the 151st best version in the world of Mirror in the Bathroom by The Beat (maybe only 151 people had sung it).
You can sing solo, against another player, or in duet and there are a few singing minigames (stopping a bomb exploding; kissing; vocal duelling) available, which I'm not a fan of, certainly compared to the main singing game (yes, I'm not that good at them).
Strictly speaking, it is my daughter's game rather than mine, bought for her for Christmas 2008, at the end of a lengthy carpet-bombing advertising campaign for it on children's TV. The initial 40 songs with the first Lips weren't that great, I think as a result of having to cover too many genres in order to appeal to the widest market possible (as a new franchise). I don't think there is much crossover between fans of The Cure and Lupe Fiasco, for example (I didn't even know what a Lupe Fiasco was when I got the game). That being said, there were some gems on that first disk - I certainly brought tears to my family's eyes with my rendition (almost in the CIA sense) of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and I'm sure Robert Smith was spinning in his woolly pully at my version of Just Like Heaven.
Songs have been available for download from Xbox Live since the game was released, in order to boost the game's longevity (and Microsoft's bulging coffers). Just like the evil Nick O'Teen (readers under the age of 35 - google it), the first hit was free (Take on Me by a-Ha) but additional songs have been 160 MS points each, with new songs added to Xbox Live every week. It seems to me that the types of songs released, unsurprisingly, have an American slant - there have often been acts I've never heard of. And that's not just because I'm old (probably). There have been some decent ones among the dross, though - I've probably downloaded about ten songs since my daughter was given the game. You can also add songs from external sources.
Late last year, a first 'proper' expansion pack was issued, Lips Number Ones, which I steered clear of as there was little on there that I was interested in among the Lips-standard 40 tracks. Two further disks have been released this year, both of which I have, Party Classics and I Love the 80s. As you can tell from the titles, both games are nostalgia-fests for 30-somethings (result!) and there are plenty of both disks that my family and I am more than happy to sing/wail along to.
Essentially, that is what Lips comes down to - having a good time singing along with family and friends. This is not a hardcore game, nor is it a game that lends itself to solo play - wanting to pretend to be Tony Hadley, in a front of a TV, on your own, would be quite an interesting character trait, to say the least. However, if you're after a fun, party game and aren't too bothered about making yourself look daft, Lips is a worthy choice.
The game entails singing along, at the right time and pitch, to onscreen lyrics, thereby building your score (and/or receiving medals, the collection of which upgrades the overall rank conferred upon the player). Combos (continually hitting the right notes) build your score further (or not, in my case), as do motion-sensing actions with the mics (and 360 controller). At the end of each song, you are awarded a grade (from 'biscuit' to 'infinity' - quite a span) and can then view online scoreboards to show how you're doing against the world - I have somehow managed the 151st best version in the world of Mirror in the Bathroom by The Beat (maybe only 151 people had sung it).
You can sing solo, against another player, or in duet and there are a few singing minigames (stopping a bomb exploding; kissing; vocal duelling) available, which I'm not a fan of, certainly compared to the main singing game (yes, I'm not that good at them).
Strictly speaking, it is my daughter's game rather than mine, bought for her for Christmas 2008, at the end of a lengthy carpet-bombing advertising campaign for it on children's TV. The initial 40 songs with the first Lips weren't that great, I think as a result of having to cover too many genres in order to appeal to the widest market possible (as a new franchise). I don't think there is much crossover between fans of The Cure and Lupe Fiasco, for example (I didn't even know what a Lupe Fiasco was when I got the game). That being said, there were some gems on that first disk - I certainly brought tears to my family's eyes with my rendition (almost in the CIA sense) of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and I'm sure Robert Smith was spinning in his woolly pully at my version of Just Like Heaven.
Songs have been available for download from Xbox Live since the game was released, in order to boost the game's longevity (and Microsoft's bulging coffers). Just like the evil Nick O'Teen (readers under the age of 35 - google it), the first hit was free (Take on Me by a-Ha) but additional songs have been 160 MS points each, with new songs added to Xbox Live every week. It seems to me that the types of songs released, unsurprisingly, have an American slant - there have often been acts I've never heard of. And that's not just because I'm old (probably). There have been some decent ones among the dross, though - I've probably downloaded about ten songs since my daughter was given the game. You can also add songs from external sources.
Late last year, a first 'proper' expansion pack was issued, Lips Number Ones, which I steered clear of as there was little on there that I was interested in among the Lips-standard 40 tracks. Two further disks have been released this year, both of which I have, Party Classics and I Love the 80s. As you can tell from the titles, both games are nostalgia-fests for 30-somethings (result!) and there are plenty of both disks that my family and I am more than happy to sing/wail along to.
Essentially, that is what Lips comes down to - having a good time singing along with family and friends. This is not a hardcore game, nor is it a game that lends itself to solo play - wanting to pretend to be Tony Hadley, in a front of a TV, on your own, would be quite an interesting character trait, to say the least. However, if you're after a fun, party game and aren't too bothered about making yourself look daft, Lips is a worthy choice.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
How old is too old?
I'm 30-something. It says so there, at the top of the page. 30-something. 39 to be precise - it was my birthday last week (quite possibly the last that I will publicly own up to).
So, aren't I a little too old to be playing games? To paraphrase top Disney Channel TV show Phineas & Ferb, 'no - no I'm not'.
I've always scoffed at this question and stated that gaming is not something bound by age. I've often quoted statistics about the average age of gamers being higher than the uninformed observer (i.e. non-gamer) would expect (though now I think that I am pulling that average upwards). When I've felt pompous, I've said 'you don't stop playing games because you get old, you get old because you stop playing games'.
However, last year this belief was shaken when my brother came to stay at my house for a weekend, for his 50th birthday. Twelve-thirteen years ago - i.e. when he was about the age I am now - I lived with my brother for a couple of years, when I first started working in London and didn't earn enough to afford a place of my own. At that time, he was an avid gamer - PC FPSs mainly but he also had a PlayStation and played the big games of the time (Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and the like).
I had planned, on his 50th weekend, to get some co-op gaming in with him but he said hadn't really played games since his mid-forties. We started playing Left 4 Dead on split-screen co-op - an FPS, so nothing he would have been unfamiliar with, gameplay-wise - and he was hopeless, barely able to aim. Or walk in a straight line. Or pathfind at all, actually. Dying though, he was an expert at. We gave it up as a bad lot before even reaching the first safe house.
That led me to think that if he could turn from being a keen gamer to being completely out of the gaming loop, could that happen to me? I'd like to think not, that gaming has been a large part of my life for nearly thirty years (with a brief gap in the late eighties/early nineties, when I was priced out of the market by the Amiga and the ST) and that I wouldn't just stop. Apart from anything else, I'd need to find something else to spend my money on.
But this isn't something that anyone can be sure of. I'm certainly enjoying my gaming now as much as I ever have - as I've said before, I think we are now in what will be looked back at in years to come as a golden age for gaming. I'd like to think that I will keep plugging on with gaming, as long as it is enjoyable to me (something that I hope will continue for many years to come). If game developers maintain the level of quality and innovation as they have in recent years, my worries should be foundless. Hopefully. But what of my blog and, more pertinently, its title?
When I used to read the 2000AD comic in the eighties and nineties, the subject of what would the comic be called when the millenium passed was raised sporadically in the letters page. When the year 2000 came, the publishers kept the name - at the end of the day, you don't shoot your brand. 2000AD launched in 1977, when the year 2000 was a long way off (certainly longer than the expected life-span of a sci-fi comic). I started this blog when I only had 18 months left of being a 30-something anything, let alone gamer. Maybe that was because, subconsciously (or pretentiously - you choose), I was fearing not being a 30-something any more and wanted to plant my flag in that decade, rather than move on into my forties (though I haven't completely ruled out being hunted down in a Logan's Run -esque fashion - the Tories are back in now, after all). Or maybe I just didn't think that far ahead - I'm not one for forethought (just ask my wife).
I think, when I'm forty, I'll just go the way of 2000AD and keep with the same name - just don't tell your local trading standards officer. Maybe I'll stick a disclaimer banner at the top of the site...
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Split/Second Velocity Demo
Split/Second Velocity is a Burnout-style racer, wherein the player can destroy the track-side scenery, thereby taking out fellow racers and remodelling the race circuit while it's being raced on. Imagine Lewis Hamilton being able to explode the Fairmont Hotel during the Monaco Grand Prix, while Sebastian Vettel was driving through the tunnel underneath and you have a fair idea of what the game is about.
A one-track demo has recently been released on Xbox Live and (even more recently) on PSN and I've spent quite a bit of time on it. I'm not a great fan of 'proper' racing titles, like the Forza series, as they require more gaming time for the player to get to a decent level than I have at my disposal. I prefer arcade racers, such as Burnout, where there is more emphasis on fun than simulation. Split/Second Velocity is very much in the latter camp - there aren't many simulations where you can bring about the crash landing of an airplane onto the racetrack (fair enough, it is set in an airport) while the race is still going on.
I've played the single race available (three laps) and each time the race was different, due to the destruction of the track. Although these can only be actioned at certain pre-defined points on the track (having first powered up a drift & draft powered gauge), I was still seeing fresh changes on my eighth or ninth play through of the same track. I do wonder if this level of invention can be kept up for the whole game - it is one thing to be bowled over by half an hour on a free demo and another thing entirely to be content with hours of what has become repetitious gameplay having spent £30 on a new game. However, I saw enough in the demo to make it very likely that I will buy the game when released. Unfortunately for the publisher, it is out (in the UK) on 21 May - the same day as my most anticipated game of the year, Red Dead Redemption, so Split/Second Velocity will have to wait until my Wild West adventures are over.
A one-track demo has recently been released on Xbox Live and (even more recently) on PSN and I've spent quite a bit of time on it. I'm not a great fan of 'proper' racing titles, like the Forza series, as they require more gaming time for the player to get to a decent level than I have at my disposal. I prefer arcade racers, such as Burnout, where there is more emphasis on fun than simulation. Split/Second Velocity is very much in the latter camp - there aren't many simulations where you can bring about the crash landing of an airplane onto the racetrack (fair enough, it is set in an airport) while the race is still going on.
I've played the single race available (three laps) and each time the race was different, due to the destruction of the track. Although these can only be actioned at certain pre-defined points on the track (having first powered up a drift & draft powered gauge), I was still seeing fresh changes on my eighth or ninth play through of the same track. I do wonder if this level of invention can be kept up for the whole game - it is one thing to be bowled over by half an hour on a free demo and another thing entirely to be content with hours of what has become repetitious gameplay having spent £30 on a new game. However, I saw enough in the demo to make it very likely that I will buy the game when released. Unfortunately for the publisher, it is out (in the UK) on 21 May - the same day as my most anticipated game of the year, Red Dead Redemption, so Split/Second Velocity will have to wait until my Wild West adventures are over.
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