Wednesday 26 January 2011

The Top 10 Worst Gaming Moments of 2010 By Alex

2010 was pretty well regarded as a good year for games. Not great, like 2008 was and 2011 promises to be, but good…like 2009 was. But let’s not get bogged down in all this calendar-based nonsense. 
Despite the relative prosperity of a year that produced TheBiggestSellingGameOfAllTime™ there were, as always, a few moments that either infuriated players, or were just so blindingly awful that all you can do is sit back and laugh about it…and then write a blog about it in 2011.
The following collection of moments do not necessarily come from the worst games of 2010 (some come from some of the best games of the year) but simply provide an insight into those moments that made me a tiny wee bit annoyed.
So whether you disagree with me or not I’m sure this list has an ulterior purpose – as it’s those infuriating moments that make up part of the reason we play games. Without the annoying moments we cannot enjoy the things games do right. Although we could still do without the following:

10. Looking like some hentai-obsessed pervert whilst playing Muramasa: The Demon Blade 

We start with a game that was technically from the very end of 2009 (if you want to go by all that ‘release date’ nonsense) but I didn’t play until 2010…so it counts.
Muramasa is a brilliant side scrolling hack and slash game, with some of the most beautiful cartoon visuals I’ve ever seen. But when I say beautiful…I’m mostly talking about the scenery. Try telling that to your girlfriend after she’s walked in on you playing the game at one of the moments where the female character Momohime enters a mountain spring to regain health.
You can argue the case for the well structured levelling up system and tight combat all you want, but when you’re controlling a small cartoon girl who is walking around in hot water completely naked save for a very clingy towel– you’re nothing but a super pervert.
The game goes back in the case, excuses are made and previous boasts of how much you were enjoying the game are hastily regretted. And all this on the family friendly Wii!

9. The end of LIMBO

This moment could well be in here based on the fact that limbo is such a fantastically enjoyable and unique game that the confusing and abrupt nature of the end simply annoys because it means the experience is over.                        
It could, however, be in here because it makes absolutely no sense. To be fair LIMBO is a game that, on the whole, barely made a lick of sense from the start and that was part of the appeal. Your character is clearly in some horrific sub-world, with no knowledge or understanding of why he is there. The game contains no narrative aside from ‘everything is trying to kill you so don’t die.’
Who is the mysterious girl at the end? Have we been searching for her all the time? What happens no…oh wait. Is that it? Is it over?! 

8.   Not being very good at Goldeneye 007 online despite all your CoD experience.

Goldeneye 007 online? On the Wii? With all those casual, arm flailing little girls and old people? Pah! I have 5 years of online CoD experience, I shall rule this land…oh wait, why can’t I aim properly?! Am I DEAD?!
A constant reminder of how you should never take anyone’s skill set for granted. Most likely the majority of opponents playing Goldeneye online are hardcore CoD players, but there’s something in the way Goldeneye is presented that makes it a little too difficult to simply transfer skills across. The online game is definitely CoD lite (it is Activision after all), with the same kind of, albeit much more basic, levelling system, perks and weapon customisation.
The levelling system in particular is incredibly strange. Players finishing top of a winning team with most kills and fewest deaths are no longer rewarded the same way as CoD, and often finish with a pitiful amount of exp compared to some lower placed players, meaning levelling up is completely random. The sprint function is mapped to a button rather than a click of the stick and there’s a distinct lack of jumping.
All this proves that it really is the little things that matter when playing a game, and that’s what makes playing video games such a personal and amazing experience. Those Wii gamers (who are very skilled at Goldeneye) who may never have played Call of Duty online (I play regularly with one) have nothing to go on, nothing to complain about and simply set about enjoying the game and honing their skills. Not complaining about it like I am now. There’s just that nagging feeling that always creeps into the back of your mind: ‘I’d be kicking your ass if this were CoD,’ and you know what, I probably wouldn’t.

7.   Pre-patch Nuketown on Call of Duty: Black Ops

Ah, Nuketown – the little online CoD map that could. What a fun map filled with precisely the type of fast paced, close quarters chaos that makes CoD online such a blistering and exhilarating experience. How I used to salute you, Nuketown. Used to.
You see, before Treyarch added a patch to the game you could quite easily be sucked into a time paradox where time stands still and you are trapped in Nuketown for all eternity. What’s that you say? The map is blown to smithereens at the end of the game? Doesn’t matter, it’s all part of your new hell. It’s blown up, but then it’s back again…and again…and again.
My regular CoD buddy and I were enjoying some quality online gaming when Nuketown showed up as a map choice. “Choose it!” we were imploring people – desperate for a chance to rack up tonnes of quick kills in the small map. 7 games later, still playing Nuketown, our sentiments were quite the opposite. Never has the phrase ‘too much of a good thing’ been more relevant.
It seems I missed the point when shelling out £40+ to play Black Ops. I didn’t realise £40 gets you the same one multiplayer map OVER and OVER again. Now I know what you’re thinking ‘just quit the game and search for a new one,’ but that’s the problem with Nuketown. It’s a drug. We all love it and we all think we can easily get 20 odd kills on it. So in the end you can’t draw yourself away from it and simply succumb to one more go.
Kudos goes to Treyarch for being the only developer to actually fix a problem listed here. A recent patch means that you cannot play the level more than twice in a row and because of that my Nuketown rehabilitation can begin. See you at the next meeting.

6.   Getting killed picking flowers in Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption is a fantastic game with an excellent cast of characters, a great story and a host of high-octane action sequences. It also contains certain challenges and even a quest that require you to pick certain different types of flowers from the dusty trails of the landscape.
Perhaps it is a credit to Red Dead that even this rather mundane task has an element of danger about it. I speak, of course, of the wandering cougars.
One minute you’re quietly showing your feminine cowgirl side by picking a lovely prickly pair, the next you’re being brutally murderised by a cougar roaring and slashing at you until you’re a mess of blood, guts and…woolly blue curls?
Now Red Dead is a game full of great action moments where getting killed is part and parcel of life in the ol’ West. But a flower death is just a kick in the pants. You die - not in a blaze of glory speeding alongside a moving train on horseback firing shotguns at the passengers and chasing lawmen…but picking flowers.
Embarrassing and annoying it may be, but what a man John Marston is. He dices with death even when he’s getting his green fingers on. Hey, you’ll never see Alan Titchmarsh blow the head off a savage, bloodthirsty cougar in between arranging posies will you?

5.  Fly Me to the Moon in Bayonetta

I didn’t realise how much the royalties for ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ actually were, but based on Bayonetta it must be a hell of a lot as it seems the developers could only afford that one song for the entire soundtrack.
The first time you hear it, it’s amusingly quirky and gives a pretty strong indication of just how bat shit the rest of the game is going to be. But when you’re several hours into the game and you’ve heard that same song in almost every battle sequence then enough is enough.
Suddenly Bayonetta stops becoming quirky and starts to become downright unbearable. The rapid shift in difficulty causes enough frustration, but hearing a classic crooner anthem weakly bleated out by what sounds like a small Japanese girl stops being amusing and becomes downright maddening.
The shrill tones suddenly sound like siren songs, mocking you as you struggle to land a combo and trying to entice you to play on despite all the crazy on screen action becoming far too much for your feeble brain to comprehend. Fortunately for me I was able to stay the course, not being drawn in by the siren song but staying true first to the mute button, and eventually to the power switch.

4.  Downloading Doritos Crash Course purely for Achievements

We all know the drill. We all did it for Doritos last game ‘Dash of Destruction’. Download free, yet rubbish, game; persevere through it for 10 minutes; get all the achievements and see your gamer score go up by 200G; never play the game again and eventually deny all knowledge of ever having played it.
Imagine the thrill, then, of seeing a new free Doritos achievement present; ‘Crash Course.’ Except this time…it’s hard. Really hard. The worst thing is, it’s still not very fun either. Oh yeah, it also takes a really long time to get any achievements.
The beauty of DoD was that you could quickly sneak through it and get all the achievements before any of your online mates even knew what was going on. This time, you have to complete a large amount of extremely punishing, poor collision detection filled levels of pain and torture that take so long to get through that all your mates can see you playing some pithy free pile of achievement fodder whilst they pWn n00bs at CoD.
You’ve been rumbled, son, and the worst thing is that you don’t even have that many achievements to show for it. I mean, you’re not going to actually perfect the game to get the harder ones are you? And you’ve unfortunately got the first achievement so you can’t even delete the history leaving it sat smugly on your profile mocking you for being so naïve. You look cheap; you look foolish and worst of all you look like you suck at games. Free games. Games made by crisp companies. So the next time you see your next free, quick and easy achievement meal ticket you might want to go offline before you ‘dedicate’ several hours of your time into it, because once you’re caught there’s no going back.

3.  Trying to bypass the bugs in Fallout: New Vegas because you want to love it

Fallout: New Vegas was one of my most anticipated games of the year in 2010. Fallout 3 ranks very highly in amongst my most treasured games of all time, but New Vegas was the one game that gave me the truest indication that sometimes more of the same just isn’t enough any more.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed more of the same excellent story telling; great side quests; the VATs system and of course roaming the wastes. I did not, however, enjoy more of the same bugs, graphical glitches and ridiculous loading times that were equally as prevalent in Fallout 3.
We all have to face facts (Bethesda especially); this game was broken on day of release. Game ending bugs ruined the enjoyment for many players and I personally had to sit through an almost 10 minute long loading screen to simply walk through a door.
Once these bugs start to kick in and the graphical ugliness becomes too much to bare; the rest of the game starts to grind the gears even more.
Waiting 5 minutes to fast track somewhere (almost eliminating the very point of it in the first place) only to find the textures haven’t loaded properly when you get there and by the time they do you’ve been mauled by a Deathclaw becomes one annoyance too many. And from then on New Vegas goes from being highly anticipated to completely shunned as you move on to other games, promising yourself that you will get back into it next but eventually put off by what lies in wait. Such a shame as the game itself is totally brilliant; it’s just a very, very flawed masterpiece.

2.  Playing Dead Rising 2 and realising you’re not having any fun

I remember my joy whilst playing the first Dead Rising demo. I love zombie movies and this was a dream come true. You could put stupid stuff on their heads! You could knock them over with a bowling ball! You could run them over with a lawnmower! The list goes was almost endless, but when the final game came around you felt somewhat limited in the amount of time you could actually spend killing zombies, instead having to dedicate your time to running from one mission to the next due to the game’s strict time frame.
So, the sequel surely fixed this right? Wrong. It was exactly the same and with the added carnage promised from being able to create new and crazier weapons, it is totally criminal that we are forced not to enjoy any of them.
I wanted to enjoy Dead Rising 2, I wanted to cause chaos and kill zombies in the most ridiculous ways imaginable. But I couldn’t. I was simply running back and forth on silly fetch quests and missions; not killing zombies at all any more but simply dodging out of their way. The zombies are meant to be a toy to play with, an element of the game that makes it fun. But forcing the player to be at several locations at once reduces the zombies to nothing more than an object to be sidestepped, a mere annoyance rather than fodder for your sick and twisted fun.
It was upon finishing the game with a kill count barely touching five thousand that I realised that the soul reason why I bought the game had not even be achieved and I’d not had any fun. It was simply an arduous trawl through a game that has a boring story and unimpressive boss fights.
I know that you can save your game and go off and kill zombies like there’s no tomorrow (pretty much because if you don’t do the missions then the game ends and there is no tomorrow), but what’s the point? Your kill count and experience gained is gone the next time you try to play the game ‘properly.’
Having fun in a game should be part of the core mechanic, not some kind of taboo you indulge yourself in when you’ve given up on actually completing the game. It should not have been this hard to balance the two out.

1.   EA not fixing the rage quitter problem in FIFA 11

I honestly didn’t know I was this good at FIFA. I didn’t realise that my apparent unbeatable prowess shown in attaining a 2-0 lead after twenty in game minutes was so evident that most opponents simply give up a full twenty five minutes before half time. Or perhaps there are far too many childish and pathetic players out there who cannot enjoy a game without winning and rage quit the minute things get even a little challenging.
It’s pretty easy to spot these potential dummy throwers straight away with two easy telltale signs. Firstly, do they instantly pick either Barcelona, Real Madrid or AC Milan? If so: you have a rage quitter! Secondly, do they completely forego any type of team management relying purely on the strength of said teams’ default line-ups and tactics (possibly as they have no knowledge of who even plays for these teams)? If so: you have a rage quitter!
With alarm bells already ringing, I naturally ignore any attempts to match big gun for big gun and go with my heart to the mighty Tottenham Hotspur even against the Brazils or Spains of the world; confident in my ability through years of practise that I can give anyone a game with the team I know best.
What follows from my opponent is usually a shot from kick off, followed by numerous tricks that get the player nowhere and cynical red card tackles from behind whenever Jermain Defoe races through on goal, eventually leading to a reasonable lead for myself. Then comes the message: ‘the connection to the game has been lost.’  
Whatever happened to sticking it out and trying to get back in the game? I know I’ve been 2-0 in the second half before and still won 4-2 and surely someone playing as the best team in the game against (probably not that) lowly Spurs has a chance too? We will never know; they never stick it out, they never try their hardest to gain back pride or push everyone forward to claw a result back. They just give up.
I’ve had a 9-2 victory taken off me before by someone who quit in the last minute of stoppage time and with FIFA simply offering you a cheap 3-0 victory as compensation, what is the point in pushing yourself beyond that if the other person will simply quit? Should I play badly on purpose to make the opponent stick around? Even then, if I sneak a win at the end they will just turn off the Xbox at full time anyway.
In the end I’ve simply given up. There’s an achievement for 5 ranked wins in a row. I’ve had 11 in a row before and because 8 of them quit before the end I never got the achievement (a condemnation against online achievements if there ever was one). There’s just no deterrent in forcing a 3-0 defeat on a player who quits whilst losing by a larger margin. Hey, Barcelona players! Are you 5-1 down to someone with a lower level team? Quit now and reduce it to 3-0!  
The time has come for EA to make a change. Anyone who quits MUST be banned from playing in ranked matches for the next 24 hours. Alternatively FIFA could have a search engine that lets you find players with a 10% quit percentage or lower. There must be steps taken to stop people from rage quitting, not simply pathetic punishments that do not deter them from re-offending again and again (subliminal judicial system rant over).

Top 10 Games of 2010 By Alex and David

10. Fallout: New Vegas

ALEX SAYS: Fallout 3 is easily in my top 10 games of all time and New Vegas does an excellent job of rekindling my love for this fantastic franchise. New Vegas’ overall narrative and shooting mechanics are better than that of its predecessor and who doesn’t welcome more side-quests and NPCs to talk to? Heading on to the New Vegas strip for the first time ranks among 2010’s better gaming moments, but the game is not without its niggles that keep it  on the cusp of the top 10 instead of sitting proudly at the top as I’d have hoped. Graphically the game is looking very dated (conversations with NPCs still take place in a stationary stare-out format) and, as is well documented, the damn thing is riddled with bugs – some aggravating and some game ending. A great game, but definitely an unpolished one.

DAVID SAYS: Capitalizing on the success of Fallout 3, New vegas, builds upon the qualities of Bethesda's iteration of the franchise and introduces it’s own twists to create some truly intriguing side quests, a must have for all big fans of Fallout 3.

9. AC Brotherhood

DAVID SAYS: Surprisingly solid. If you like Assassins Creed 2, then you'll defiantly like this. Much much more than just a shameless cash in, introducing new gameplay features that will hopefully be implemented in Assassins Creed 3.

8. Heavy Rain

ALEX SAYS: The best movie I’ve ever played. This game is obviously all about narrative and its success is literally pinned entirely on the quality of the story. Without the gripping tale full of quality reveals and twists, we could have seen the death of this bold new gaming direction before it had even started. Yes, it’s essentially a point and click adventure for the modern games generation but the superb graphical quality, intuitive motion controls and brilliant voice acting have set an incredibly high precedent for a genre that, hopefully, we have only just begun to see the best of.

DAVID SAYS: Although not a completely new way to play games, this game still feels fresh and interesting, somewhat spoiled by holes in the main plot, there is still a really enjoyable experience to be had here. The feeling that every action you take is having an effect on the other characters in the game is truly captivating, pushing the player forward to find out what will happen.


7. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

ALEX SAYS: A game with somewhat of an identity crisis, but in a good way. Hideo Kojima brings Castlevania into the modern era with a veritable ‘best of’ hack ‘n’ slash game. Mixing together the tight combo-based combat of God of War with Prince of Persia climbing sections and Shadow of the Collossus boss fights; Castlevania succeeds because it presents these elements with both freshness and enough of a nod to fan service to create the ultimate 3D Castlevania experience. Oh yeah and, clichéd as it is to say, this game is epic. Two Xbox discs epic, and the level-based formula really works to provide a game that never slows or stagnates, with every level keeping the gameplay fresh and exiting.  

6. Mafia 2

ALEX SAYS: Last year we were treated to some of the most authentic and enjoyable sandbox worlds ever created and 2K Czech’s 1940s and 50s America was definitely one of them. Mafia 2 adopted a different approach to sandbox gaming where side quests and pointless time consuming tasks take a back seat to a brilliant story and tonnes of tense and exciting set pieces. The excellent narrative is driven by some superb voice acting (most notably by Robert Costanza as main character Vito’s best friend Joe) that give the game the feel of Coppola or Scorcese gangster epic. Although the city of ‘Empire Bay’ created by 2K may serve as little more than a backdrop to the story; it is integral to the feel of the game. The city looks amazing and the 40s/50s period vehicles, clothes, weapons and superb soundtrack all help to provide one of my favourite game worlds of all time. 

  DAVID SAYS: A bit of a sleeper hit for me, never been big on PC gaming, so the first Mafia game slipped me by. As soon as I played it however, I was hooked, the atmosphere is perfect, and the characters were believable, and interesting from the off, the time period also interests me far more than modern settings so this is a game that I will fondly remember for some time to come.

5. Call of Duty: Black Ops

ALEX SAYS: Although the CoD formula is beginning to look slightly predictable and remains largely unchanged from one title to the next; the franchise still provides the premier first person shooting experience on consoles. A breathtaking single player campaign that wildly swings from one mind blowing spectacle to another sits perfectly alongside the most advanced and exciting multiplayer engine available. The wealth of customisation in matches, characters, weapons and perks is unparalleled and matches remain as fast and furious as ever. The addition of wager matches is a touch of genius and the brilliant zombies multiplayer is also back and still mixes a perfect blend of hilarity and tension when played with three online partners. More of the same then, but it wasn’t broke…

DAVID SAYS: Some may be becoming sick of the leviathan that is the Call Of Duty franchise, but nobody can deny it’s success. In my humble opinion, it is the best iteration of the franchise to date, and the changes to the multiplayer are just enough to keep the game interesting, while providing the most fun and bombastic single payer campaign yet.



4. FIFA 11

ALEX SAYS: The FIFA franchise continually goes from strength to strength and is systematically blowing all competition out of the water. Gone are the days when FIFA games were sold on the back of little more than a full license and a quirky and needless new feature (okay, so there’s be a goalie in this one, but that doesn’t detract from the game’s quality). Nowadays, FIFA is the finest example of football simulation ever created. Matches are deceptively fast and flowing with superb player animation, ball physics and improved AI. Further improvements to the (still slightly overpriced) live season, career modes and ultimate team fully cement this as the most complete football package ever devised. There’s so much to keep fans occupied and it’s really clear how much EA cares about its FIFA product and community these days. With such high quality production value and attention to detail that it’s hard to see the FIFA machine slowing down. Now if only EA would ban those online rage quitters…

DAVID SAYS: Takes the ping pong passing of FIFA 10, and strikers inability to push past defenders, and throws it out the window, players own personalities are introduced so that they play and move like the real thing. Still some way to go before it is the perfect footballing experience, but is still a long way better than it’s competitors.

3. Red Dead Redemption

ALEX SAYS: Once again Rockstar show everyone else how to create a truly engrossing sandbox world. This bleak, yet beautiful, Wild West masterpiece is a much a perfect homage to the great western movies as it is a brilliantly crafted story in its own right. As usual, Rockstar pads its epic quest with several brilliantly voiced secondary NPCs to both aid and annoy John Marston in equal measure. Gameplay mechanics are much tighter than those in previous GTA games and the excellent ‘dead eye’ function is a great addition to a very robust cover-shooter mechanic. But it is the Wild West setting itself that’s truly a sight to behold. Danger and excitement can lurk in even the most docile of settings and Red Dead Redemption provides one of the best ever game worlds to get lost in. And believe me, you can get lost in this world for hours. We all used to pretend to be a cowboy when we were kids and it’s hard to deny that Rockstar have done our childhood imaginations full justice here.

DAVID SAYS: Put simply, it’s a sandbox game as close to perfection as there has ever been, interesting and compelling characters throughout, coupled with a vibrant world and brilliant storyline. Rockstar again prove their ability to set themselves apart and above their competition.

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2


ALEX SAYS: When Nintendo do what they do best, they cannot be matched by anyone. The Japanese giant truly knows how to produce fun, pure and simple, and Mario Galaxy 2 is more than enough evidence to support this. To call the game Mario Galaxy 1.5 is unfair and unjust. Whilst there is little innovation in evidence, there is significant improvement in just about every area and this proves that Nintendo don’t have to re-design Mario’s entire world every time to make a truly entertaining game. The game takes great steps to reassure ‘hardcore’ Nintendo fans that the company still cares; the game is significantly more of a challenge than Galaxy and the re-introduction of Yoshi harks back to the good ol’ days of Mario World on the SNES. What Mario Galaxy 2 possesses that no other game from 2010 does is something almost indescribable. It’s that wondrous and magical child like feeling that a 20-something man can only get when playing a Mario game. There’s no need for big guns, macho pretention or online slanging matches – Super Mario Galaxy 2 is just a thrilling, beautiful and (here’s that word again) fun video game that showcases a developer at the top of its game. 

DAVID SAYS: Most people who played the original Mario Galaxy game would agree that the colourful world, cute design and near perfect gameplay is by far the best game on the wii, and most intuitive use of motion controls that had been seen, so it is astounding that Mario Galaxy 2 was able to completely blow the game out of the water. Nintendo again prove their ability to create beautiful, enjoyable games that cater for both young and old, showing that a game doesn't have to involve machine guns and multiplayer to be fantastic.

1.Mass Effect 2

ALEX SAYS: If Red Dead does a sterling job of placing the player in a western movie, then Mass Effect 2 does an even better one of putting the player in a sci-fi space opera. This game is epic-ness personified and contains more jaw dropping moments than any seen in 2010. Incredible character development; crucial game changing decisions; superb combat mechanics; brilliant voice acting, blockbuster cut-scenes…the list of superlatives is as long as the game itself. Gone are the copied and pasted bumpy landscapes and sticky combat, being replaced with magnificent sprawling planets and cities and a complete combat overhaul that finally makes playing the game as rewarding as following the story. And what a story – Bioware have created a saga that could easily run infinitely. Every player will have different experiences and form their own opinions of Shepherd’s different companions, all of whom have their own utterly compelling back stories and ‘one last thing I need to do’ missions that Shepherd need accompany them on. Mass Effect 2 had me utterly gripped from start to finish and, on seeing the trailer for Mass Effect 3 it’s really hard to see the next instalment in this amazing saga not topping 2011’s best games list as well. 

DAVID SAYS: Every console has it’s defining titles, that will forever live in the memory of gamers as classics, this is defiantly one of those games. Although not without it’s flaws, I was glued to the game from start to finish, cementing itself as one of my favorite games of all time. Roll on Mass Effect 3.

Top 10 Disappointments of 2010 By Alex and David

10. Bioshock 2

ALEX SAYS: Despite being a really enjoyable game, Bioshock 2 has the unfortunate burden of being the sequel to a game so unique, featuring a game world so bewildering and awe inspiring, that it was almost doomed to fail in surpassing its predecessor before it even started. The game’s shooting mechanics were definitely improved; the frustrating ‘pipe-mania’ mini game was gone; and the big sisters added a new element of fear, but the setting of Rapture simply couldn’t offer the same kind of wonderment a second time out. Plumbing the depths of the ruined underwater dystopia felt less awe inspiring when it was all too familiar. And without such strong narrative elements as Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine and Sander Cohen the story in Bioshock 2 didn’t grip the player as much as the original and the game desperately lacked that big twist experienced in Bioshock. There is still no doubt that Bioshock 2 is still a brilliantly well made video game among the year’s best, but it’s a game that didn’t really need to be made. The drastic changes set to be made in Bioshock Infinite provide proof that 2K is well aware that a new setting is needed to take the players breath away once more.

DAVID SAYS: Overall, a solid and enjoyable title, but was ill fitting with the original, and at times felt unlike rapture. After finishing the game, i’m left with a sour taste in my mouth, feeling that id had a slapped together experience put together to cash in on the name Bioshock.

9.Fallout: New Vegas

ALEX SAYS: Yeah, we know Fallout is in the year’s top 10 games as well and rightly so, but the flaws of New Vegas are so glaring for all to see that it still has to be labelled somewhat of a disappointment. I know myself that I would have loved New Vegas no matter what – I just wanted more of the magnificence I saw in Fallout 3, but through all the enjoyment there is to garner from New Vegas, the bugs and graphical ugliness sometimes prove too much to ignore. Fallout: New Vegas is very much a case of one step forward, two steps back. The combat mechanics are an improvement on the predecessor; as are the greater number of side quests and NPCs; the companion wheel and the more focused narrative. But the game really suffers from dated graphics and that most inexcusable of all injustices – game ending bugs. In VATS mode the game can freeze on a felled enemy indefinitely and the loading screens can last close to 5 minutes (I once managed to make a cup of tea in the time it took to walk through the door into one of New Vegas’ casinos); sometimes never actually loading the game at all. The Fallout series is one that is too good to be spoilt by these bugs, but on the flip side it really should be too good to have them in the first place.

DAVID SAYS: A game that looks and feels horribly out of date, ugly visuals, and it doesn't seem to have learned from the mistakes made by it’s predecessor. That and being essentially broken upon release creates the impression that the developer had no care or interest in the title, other than the hefty revenue that it has now no doubt provided.


8.Goldeneye 007

ALEX SAYS: A game very much in the same family as that of Bioshock 2 – doomed to fail in comparison to a predecessor from the start. Whilst Bioshock 2 followed in the footsteps of one of the finest games of this generation, Goldeneye tried to improve upon a game that, whilst no doubt has a long lasting legacy as the granddaddy of console FPS games, is becoming more and more unplayable as time passes. It should have been easy to improve upon the game – make Goldeneye faster, prettier, tighter and throw in a great multiplayer. But instead of trying to create the ultimate Goldeneye, Eurocom seems to have simply produced Call of Duty lite. Granted, the game would have suffered from simply copying the exact level design, weapons and set pieces, but the game looks completely unrecognisable from the original and not in a good way. What we’re left with is not an updated slice of nostalgia, but simply a feeling of ‘been there done that,’ only in better capacity on Xbox and Playstation 3. The game is not bad by any means, it is by far the best 007 game after the original Goldeneye and does offer a fun and enjoyable campaign mode – it just doesn’t get the nostalgia glands flowing as much as many N64 fans would have liked.

DAVID SAYS: Not a bad game, and as far as first person shooters go on the wii, this is one of the best, however, with the highly esteemed title of Goldeneye, and being released on an under powered console, it would never be able to live up to its predecessor, this along with poor online play, leaves me feeling empty.


7.God of War 3

DAVID SAYS: I’d never played a God Of War game before this, and where I can see why people like the game, I felt that Cratos was a terrible character, and I was forced to do things throughout the game that I didn't want to do. It’s probably for the best that the tale appears to be finished. We don't need any more of these.


6.Fable 3

DAVID SAYS: I enjoyed this game, but felt again, that the promises of emotional attachment were again not fully delivered upon. Although widely believed to be no longer an RPG, games like Mass effect have now spoiled us, when it comes to expecting the choices we make, to affect the outcome of the game more dramatically.

5.Gran Turismo 5

ALEX SAYS: Put it this way: If you were hungry at midday and had to wait five hours for your lunch, you’d only end up being disappointed and wondering why you waited so long. Either that or your stomach would have hurt too much and you’d have moved on to dinner a long time ago. What’s for dinner? Forza 3, Project Gotham 4, Grid, Need For Speed Shift, Colin McCrae Dirt 2 etc. Your choice, whenever you’re hungry.

DAVID SAYS: Any game that takes 6 years to produce, should be near perfect upon release. This is not. With what looks no better than PS2 graphics at times and a handling model that is inferior in every way to Forza has a lot to account for. This game stumbled out of the blocks, and continues to limp around the track. Somebody confine it to the pits permanently, and we’ll wait another 6 years for the next iteration. Meanwhile enjoying another three Forza titles while we wait.


4.Call of Duty: Black Ops

ALEX SAYS: Another year, another Call of Duty game, another sales record smashed and yet an underlying feeling of familiarity that begs the question: is this as good as it’s ever going to get? Will CoD ever do anything again to really push the boundaries of the FPS genre or has it played its cards so successfully that it’s simply going to stick rather than twist to pocket yet more winnings? Put it this way: if you had made the biggest selling game of all time twice why would you change anything at all? CoD continues to offer one of the best multiplayer experiences out there using the same formula as a game now over 4 years old. That obviously says a lot about how fantastic CoD 4’s multiplayer engine is, but clearly indicates that Activision plan on milking as much as they can, which is a lot, out of it yet. Multiplayer experiences are pretty much interchangeable from one series entry to the next and with little expansion of the single player you have to ask yourself ‘Is this really any better than last year? Or even the year before that?’ The answer is probably no but the fickle nature of the games industry leads us to believe that each instalment is an improvement over the last when in actuality it’s not much more than a cut and pasted update. Of course the CoD series should be commended as it’s an entertainment juggernaut that has millions of devoted fans that helped make online console gaming the huge entity that is today. But on next year’s inevitable release I’d just like to see something that I haven’t seen since CoD 4: something new and exciting to make me feel that Activision has really moved the goalposts lot rather than a little.      

DAVID SAYS: A highly predictable story that continues to be churned out to make billions for Activision, could be easily blamed for the heavy saturation of the FPS genre, and providing little in the way of innovation. Before releasing some undoubtable overpriced DLC. Can’t wait...


3.Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

ALEX SAYS: Now, I’ll admit that I personally was never that hopeful for this game in the first place. Having seen the low critical ratings of the original K&L, I never even bothered with playing it at all. Even when new pictures of K&L 2 surfaced I remained pretty unenthused about the whole thing, but a string of glowing previews gushing about the new mechanics and unique graphical style eventually persuaded me that it could be worth my time. How wrong I was. There’s nothing worse (or should that be better?) than being persuaded to change your opinion of something only to find out that you were right all along. This game is circus freak ugly, no matter how ‘unique’ the graphical style is. Making a game that looks like a low-res YouTube video should never have been applauded, unless that applause is at the Annual Eye Strain Awards (note: this ceremony does not exist…yet). All could be forgiven…well some could be forgiven if the game played well, but it’s simply just a poor cover shooter that has been trumped several times already by the Gears of Wars, Mass Effect 2s and even Mafia 2s of the world. So a major disappointment to anyone who thought that K&L had turned a corner and an even bigger one to those who were eventually lead to believe so after prior caution. The moral of the story: DON’T TRUST ANYONE!   

DAVID SAYS: Why? Is the first word that comes to mind. Did anybody actually want this? Still they seem to have some interesting visuals going on here, maybe ill give it a chance. NOPE it’s garbage, and I hate the characters that im being forced to play with, still it looks at least like they will die... Oh wait no they don’t. Utter shambles of a game that went on 7 hours to long. Good idea about the visuals though. At times it works well. BUT PLEASE NO MORE!


2.Crackdown 2

DAVID SAYS: Microsoft caught on to a winner with the first Crackdown, so why they didn't put more effort into the sequel I will never know. The best thing about the first game was all the climbing, so why they wrecked the city I have no idea. Felt like nothing more that Crackdown 1.1.


1.Dead Rising 2

 ALEX SAYS: Much like CoD, Dead Rising 2 can be criticised for not really improving on anything from its predecessor. Unfortunately for Dead Rising 2, the phrase ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ can’t really be applied. It was broke and they didn’t fix it. This was even more of a surprise considering development was handed over to western developers Blue Castle whom, it would be expected, would want to make their mark on righting the wrongs of the original and making their mark as a developer on improving on a flawed, but very enjoyable game. Not the case, it seems, as Blue Castle simply followed the exact same formula as Dead Rising. Here to stay was the ridiculous 72 hour time limit, the annoying save system and the obscure psychopath boss fights to which there seems to be absolutely no method in the madness. When I buy a video game for £40, I want to enjoy it; take my time over it and see all there is to see. If I’m being forced to do something in the next 5 minutes (usually some completely boring fetch quest), then I’m not going to have enough time to enjoy myself. A game based entirely on finding crazy ways to kill zombies contained very little of that for me. Instead, so hurried by the strictest of deadlines, I found myself simply weaving in and out of the hordes on my way to my next mission. Most of the time I was so rushed that I had to forego a trip to one of the stupid bathroom save points in fear of the game ending. No game should contain a feature whereby if you fail to do something half way through it ends. Zombie killing was, of course, fun but the game has come on so little since the very broken original that this title, like so many others in this list, feels utterly pointless.

DAVID SAYS: The most annoying thing about the first Dead Rising was that when you play, all you want to do, is run around like a mad man and kill zombies for an hour or so, only to find out theres no time to actually have fun in the game, as theres a time limit, so the decision to leave this feature in the game bemuses me. I understand that some people may like the tension and pressure that this gameplay type creates, but it’s not for me and I never want to see it again. This could have been a fantastic title.

Yearly Iterations Of Games By David


They've now become a common staple of the video games industry, but are yearly iterations of franchises a good idea? Or do they stifle talent?
I suppose the most obvious answer would be yes they do (though I don't necessarily agree with this). Companies, probably most notably Activision stumble upon a good idea, or popular game, then churn out title after title until there’s no market left. Just look at Rock Band and Guitar Hero. These games were initially very popular and most of us have at least one plastic guitar lying around gathering dust in a corner, but just recently we've seen a massive decline in sales as the market either reaches saturation point, or people have just become sick of the games. This lead to Harmonix recently being sold off for only fifty Dollars.
The most notable yearly iteration of them all, Call of Duty, has now spawned vast numbers of games, and now we’re surely reaching the saturation point of the genre, and this can only be a bad thing for its fans, the genre is now becoming very stale, with Call of Duty resting on it’s laurels, and it’s competitors only trying to make carbon copies. This will lead to an inevitable drop in sales, and as a result developer support will drop as well, naturally leading to less investment and talent being pumped into the genre.
I also feel that the yearly releases of sports games are also interesting. It’s well known that developers have plenty of ideas to implement on future releases, but they hold them back so that they have something to add next year, surely depriving it’s customers of the ultimate experience?
There are, however, solid pros to this approach that some people may not have thought about, and the haters of these iterations also need to take a look at themselves.
Today we live in a consumer driven economy, where supply and demand is paramount. These titles obviously sell, so why shouldn't companies release these games? At the end of the day they're there to make money, and not sit around for the fun of it. If you don't like it, vote with your wallets, and don't buy the games, but more often than not, these games are actually quite good, even with the small incremental improvements.
I do feel that although the yearly iterations can become tiresome and frustrating, especially at the beginning of 2011 as we are looking at one of the best years ever in gaming, most of what we see are sequels. The yearly iteration has a very important role to play in gaming today. The revenue that these games provide may push publishers towards releasing more of the same type of game over and over again, but it also gives the developer a massive cash pile that they can invest in high budget new IPs. If it wasn't for games like Madden of Fifa, we certainly wouldn't have seen games like Dead Space, or at least not with the polish and high production values that the game has today and as a result we may have had a watered down version with poor visuals and gameplay. Making us much poorer for the experience.
However, that philosophy is only effective if developers actually carry it out. Sure we have new IPs, but are there enough? Or are new games becoming too much of a risk? Singularity came out and was widely well received by the press, but with little publisher marketing support, the game got little coverage. When was the last time Nintendo produced a new IP?
So yes, enjoy your rant about publishers running games into the ground, its annoying and we all hate it, but sit down and enjoy LA Noir and give those ten copies of open world sandbox games sitting on your shelf next to GTA a tickle under the chin, because they've played their part brilliantly.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

The UK Governments Decision Not To Support The UK Games Industry By David

I know at the time of posting that this is an old topic, but with the current climate this country and indeed the rest of the world is facing, this will be a continually relevant subject.
What i’m getting at is the coalitions decision not support the previous governments promises to introduce tax breaks for the gaming industry within the UK.
On the face of it, at least for those outside the industry, this may not seem like such a big issue, however with the technological age well and truly upon us, it is becoming more and more necessary for Britain to establish itself at the forefront of these growing markets, and the games industry is ripe for being taken advantage of.
The gaming industry can no longer be looked upon as a niche market. With the imminent launch of Microsofts Kinnect, targeting a family audience that has up to now seen the Nintendo Wii sell over 70 million console units worldwide, a major factor in helping the japanese company post profits of 279.09 billion yen in 2009, and the more traditional gaming title Modern warfare 2 selling over 20 million copies In the first few months after release, making the game worth over 500 million dollars. It seems counter productive and totally against the encouragement of business that the coalition claims to support, to back away from these plans. This fact is only compounded in the realization that the UK already have established developers within the industry in the form of Lionhead studios, who produce the vastly popular Fable games and Rockstar games, who produce the phenomenally popular Grand Theft Auto games.
Unfortunately for the UK however Canada have introduced these tax breaks, and as a result of this there has been a large exodus towards this country, with Rockstar games developing their most recent open world game Red Dead Redemption in Canada.
The games industry, and the UK have never been better positioned to take advantage of each other. With the global industry today being worth over 55 billion dollars, and one of its major players, Japan, seriously stagnating when it comes to developing games, the upcoming release of the Nintendo 3DS early next year, and the UK public in need of jobs with an abundance of graduates leaving university with degrees in computer related subjects, it seems only two obvious that this should be taken advantage of. Yet it is not?
The United states woke up to the industry years ago, with Microsoft now an established brand within the industry, and Apple, who have been traditionally opposed to making itself a presence within the games market, now being unable to ignore its potential for the iPhone, iPad and iPod.
The UK coalition should move forward and seize this opportunity by introducing tax breaks, then utilizing the British industry figureheads like Peter Molyneux in promoting the industry within the country and the rest of the world.
This would obviously have a direct affect on the industry with many game developing countries moving to the UK to develop games, generating revenue for the country through taxation, even with the tax breaks in place. In turn this would encourage British talent, allowing them to express themselves and spread their influence throughout the world, and provide a ripple effect throughout the country helping other media who would need to cover the success and publications of the games market, naturally allowing all other connected industries to benefit without providing financial relief. Even now the industry is a massive cash cow, provided there is talent there able to exploit it, but over time it is only set to get bigger, with more and more people becoming active participants in the past time, and technological advances only increasing its appeal. The industry is already worth more than the movie business and it is showing no signs of slowing down. In the way that certain films are considered art and ingrained into our culture, so will video games in the future. The UK Government should grab this opportunity whilst it presents itself instead of ignoring a viable business opportunity that will move forward and leave those not involved behind.