Dear Esther: Concluded

Dear Esther is a lonely ... experience (I hesitate to call it a game for reasons explained below). In essence it's an interactive ghost story, the character the player inhabits appears to also be the narrator. The experience goes a little like this: you wander around an isolated (Scottish) island listening to the story, but as the story gets creepier you get drawn in both physically and emotionally. It reminded me a little of a story I read that was linked from SomethingAwful (yes, I'm a goon), The Cave. I can highly recommend it.

The Chinese Room have done a fantastic job of teasing out every last bit of performance from the ageing Half Life 2 engine, and the audio is on par with the visuals.

Exploration with nothing to find.

A FPS without the S. Try it, you might like it.

Baby Break: Concluded

Well I certainly never expected it to be this difficult.

The one gripe I have about the whole baby thing is honesty. No-one is honest when it comes to their own offspring. "Labour's a magical experience". "You'll cherish every second of your newborn".

It's not, it's very difficult. All of it.

Anyway let's get back on track. I managed to get through a few games over the last three months (what else is paternity time for?) so I'll post my thoughts over the coming weeks.

Baby break

According to Google Analytics this announcement will be of interest to roughly 12 people, but I might as well post anyway.

The blog is offline for a while now because of this little disturbance:

Internet, meet Evan George. I'm not sure if he likes video games yet, I'm sure he'll let me know in due course.

Call of Duty: World at War: Concluded

I was putting off COD 5. It's been there for months, sitting there on the shelf, baiting me. "Put aside the thoughts of your grandpa fighting the Germans in WWII, old wars are entertainment now" it was saying.

I discussed this issue with my grandma a while back, when another high profile WWII game was released. She was oblivious of the fact that past wars pass as entertainment these days in games, TV and films; a nice easy way to kill time. Juxtapose that with the thought of her working in the factory, assembling weapons that were used by my Grandpa and his fellow soldiers to kill other men simply because they happen to be a thousand miles apart, and you maybe begin to see where I'm coming from, and why I'm not such a big fan of games of this ilk. Anyway, that's a discussion for another time.

COD 5 is pretty much at the pinnacle of modern FPS games, I fail to see how it could be improved. It ticks all the 'old war' FPS boxes ... where next? Inevitably COD 6 which should be a Modern Warfare 2, but where next for Treyarch and their old weapons? I shouldn't complain, this franchise along with Guitar Hero keeps me and my Activision siblings in a job.

Gameplay wise, for me COD 5 was a slog at times, however I enjoyed the city based levels a lot more than the countryside trench ones. Unfortunately it suffers from that old nutshell, the death (through grenade or otherwise), and retry. I lost count of how many times the protagonist eats a grenade, or dies at the hands of one of the hoard of unlimited respawned Germans until a trigger box is reached, then retry. Honestly I don't see what purpose these retries serve, if not to prolong the time it takes to complete the level.

If it wasn't for the achievement points, and the fact that I got it for free I doubt I would have played COD 5, even though I thoroughly enjoyed COD 4. It's not in the same era, sure, but it's not even in the same league.

Plants vs Zombies: Concluded

Popcap have done it again.

After the casual masterpiece that is Peggle, Popcap have released Plants vs Zombies, another attempt to steal all my spare time. And it worked.

Plants vs Zombies is fantastic. The game has rock-solid mechanics, is polished to a massive extent, has a sense of humour ... and taps into a very popular meme, namely zombies. What more does any game need?

Popcap's twist on the classic tower defence genre gives the player an ever increasing amount of plants to defend their house from waves of different types of zombies. Each different type of zombie has it's own distinct personality and skill, from the bog standard brain-eater to the Michael Jackson-esque dancing zombie who resurrects four of his pals with a Thriller-esque pirhouette, and as with the zombies, each plant brings something different to the table.

The game is played out on a 6x6 grid, and the currency used to 'buy' plants is sunlight, which drops from the sky, or can be generated using sunflowers, and mushrooms in later levels. This introduces a new mechanic to the genre, and gives PvZ a unique twist. As well as placing your plants, keeping an eye on any approaching zombies, and collecting any coins dropped, the player must also watch out for sunlight to collect. It's frantic at times, and completely brilliant.

One tiny criticism is difficulty, or lack of. As always, Popcap's learning curve is second to none, but as you play through the game you never get the feeling that a level is close to impossible to complete. In my whole playthrough, I only failed twice (on the very last level), but I guess this is what happens with casual games. Once completed, the game continues to give, with a whole host of new modes and minigames.

Let me repeat myself ... Plants vs Zombies is fantastic, and after reading the credits I can't believe it only took four people to develop. If only all games were like this.

Dead Space: Concluded

Dead Space had quite a hard time of it. A new IP released in the Christmas scrum of 2008, it lost out somewhat in the race for review column inches, along with Mirrors Edge.

EA Redwood/Visceral Games have done a fantastic job of picking and choosing which parts to replicate from their huge list of influences, and adding just enough to the mix to make Dead Space feel like a new adventure. There's a highly polished feel running through all areas from the excellent visuals and audio to the UI and front end ... however, there's a 'but' coming along ...

Below the high sheen lies a slightly rotten core. I encountered numerous bugs, from crashes to character and environment glitches, but nothing would prepare me for the bug that ended my participation in the Dead Space universe.

One chapter has Isaac Clarke collecting a number of navcards in order to access the shuttle to escape off the Ishimura. The total amount of cards was never documented (as far as I was aware), but no big deal right? It took around an hour to find the navcards, there was no fanfare or notification when each navcard was collected so I was never fully aware how many I had and how many I needed. The number of cards wasn't even listed on the inventory screen. 90 minutes in, I Clarke approached the shuttle, went to insert the navcards only to be blocke: NO ENTRY. Right, what? I tried backtracking, but was hampered by 1) the in-game naigation marker always taking me back to the shuttle, 2) save overwrites and 3) numerous blockers stopping me. I found only one mention of this on the internet here, so I guess I found a pretty rare bug. Great.

I sold the game at work the next day for £20, needless to say I never mentioned this glitch to the buyer!

Visually the game is stunning, if a little brown, but the enemies are a little disappointing. As so much work has clearly gone into the environments I found the characters a bit of a let-down, they appear to have come straight out of The Thing, 70's visuals and all.

The audio is particularly deserving of a mention, in fact I think Dead Space won numerous awards for it. On a Dolby Digital system I’ve never heard anything quite like it.

Overall, Dead Space is worth a play, but make sure you collect those damn navcards.

Inner Space

I'm the last person I know still playing Dead Space. Everyone else has fallen by the wayside.

"Too boring"

"Repetitive"

"All you do is retrace your own steps"

"It's buggy"

The last one's mine by the way, but I disagree with the other criticisms, so far at least. I've had a few arguments at work, defending EA's effort at survival horror against a barrage of criticisms ... my argument being that even though Dead Space is highly derivitive, it still includes enough new features that make it an excellent game. Will I feel different in a few days when I complete it? Who knows.

Blogs are old hat

Here's a link you may or may not be interested in - Is Twitter Replacing Blogging?

As you can gather from the title it's discussing the rise of Twitter and Facebook as a blogging tool. There are a lot of blogging tools available: Blogger (host of the fine blog you're reading now) and Wordpress, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter to name but a few. Twitter and Facebook both facilitate"micro-blogging" - limiting the user's text entry capacity (Twitter, for example, allows a maximum of140 characters) to a much smaller amount than previously possible. The current topic du jour is how these micro blogging sites render the other fully fledged tools redundant, cutting the bloat and fat of the wordy post down to it's component information.

As far as Game Concluded's opinion - I think there's room for both, however I'm a bit wary of limiting what people want to say. This already happens in the world of SMS, with many people carrying over their text-speak to real life - I've lost count of the amount of times I've received an email or IM in reduced text-speak and it's a real shame. We need less compression, more expansion. More eloquence, more story telling, more English.

Out of interest I ran Game Concluded through a blog post word count tool, and it averages 300 words per post which is below average. My aim for the blog is for it to be as succinct and to the point as possible without being too wordy. Hopefully I'm on track.

Anyway, I'm about to board a tram to the Engineering Deck of the USG Ishimura. C U L8TR.

Far Cry 2: Concluded

I have to admit defeat.

I can't continue.

It's too much for me, too repetitive.

All my previous concerns with Far Cry 2 were proved valid, and when I was told yesterday that after having played for 12 hours I was only 14% through, I cracked. I very rarely don't complete a game, even the worst of games must be completed in my eyes (this is partly a value for money thing, partly an OCD completeness thing) but I just could face slogging through another mission, another attack on the same old compound facing the same old enemies laid out in exactly the same way.

I must have played about 15 missions, each one followed the same path: go to this place to get briefed. During the 5-or-so minute drive encounter exactly the checkpoint populated by exactly the same enemy. Slaughter everyone, continue through another checkpoint. Meet contact. Repeat all previous encounters until the "base" or "depot" is reached, slaughter everyone and blow stuff up.

It really feels like no love has gone into the the game. I'll give you a little example: save points. There are save points all over the place, one would expect to be able to go over to one, press a button and call up auto-save. Not in Far Cry 2, expect at least four button presses to save your progress. In fact this spreads to the whole UI, it's clunky and very un-user friendly, continuing along the same path as the gameplay.

I'm reminded of my thoughts on GTA IV "The Lost and Damned" here, because Ubisoft Montreal have created a fantastic Africa (as I mentioned in my previous post), similar in quality to Liberty City. Why one works so well as a game world and the other doesn't, I don't know.

I may go back to Far Cry 2 but I doubt it. Dead Space is calling me from the deepest darkest reaches of space.

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned: Concluded

Well, that was a disappointment.

GTA IV was completed to 100% in the Thorne household. 43 hours. 50 stunt jumps. Every damn last pigeon. I enjoyed every minute of it, and couldn't wait to get stuck in to the downloadable content episode "The Lost and Damned". In hindsight maybe I was setting myself up for a fall. Hindsight's a wonderful thing.

Where do I begin with TLAD? The characters? All carbon copies of each other, none with the sublety previously seen in Niko, Roman et al. New mechanics? Most of the battles in TLAD are now squad based, and you're supposed to give a shit about protecting your comrades. On paper this is a good idea, but when one Lost member is replaced by faceless replica minus a bit of barely noticeable skill, it becomes difficult to care. Another new mechanic is another one that again on paper works, but doesn't in practise. When riding in formation a badge is displayed on the ground. The player is supposed ride on the badge and gain some kind of reward, but it's not obvious what the reward is, so here's another feature to ignore.

I suppose I should preface this next paragraph with a spoiler warning, although you'd have to be pretty slow to not see it coming. The main problem I found with TLAD, and I never thought I'd say this about a Rockstar game, is that it feels ever so slightly rushed. That's right, I said it. Rushed. A little example: along with the main story, as with GTA IV there are side missions - one of these is called Gang Warfare which is an excuse for The Lost have a running battle with a rival gang. Again, on paper, fine. However, as the Lost disband at the end of the game, you would have thought here would be no more gang warfare. Wrong. The Lost continue their gang warfare oblivious, even though they don't exist anymore.

Ultimately though, TLAD still works and here's why: Liberty City is the most realistic and believable game environment created ever, so you could throw any old hackneyed story, badly imagined characters or even shoddy design into it and it would still work.

Far Cry 2/The Lost and Damned

I'm about halfway through the GTA 4 DLC expansion "The Lost and Damned", and Far Cry 2.

I started Far Cry 2 two week before The Lost and Damned was released so I could complete and get it out of the way, but to be honest I've struggled a bit, hence why I'mplaying both at the same time. The problem I found with Far Cry 2 is that there's not much of game there.

Technically it's astonishing. It really looks and sounds like you're roaming across the plains of Africa, and the weather (although not real time) is marvellously well implemented. The fire effect, too, is unlike anything I've seen in a game before. The AI is a bit dumb and buggy and as a consequence ruins the illusion slightly, but the big problem I've found so far is the lack of game. It feels more like a tech demo than a game to me.

The small towns, settlements, guard posts and open plains are very realistic, but I wonder how much input the design team had in the environment. It feels like realism was favoured over fun, but I suppose videogames have been going that way for some time now.

That said, I am only hafway through so maybe I'll feel differently when (if) I manage to finish.

Braid: Concluded

Braid's beautiful, but too hard.

I never used to find 2d platformers hard. Flashback, Klonoa, any and all Marios (including spin-offs: Wario, Yoshi etc), Mega Man, Heart Of Darkness, Donkey Kong Country ... etc ... I could go on.

Granted, Braid has a unique mechanic: time control. As far as I'm aware, I don't recall having the ability to rewind time in a 2d platformer before and as such this contributes to making Braid an excellent game. All the legacy platformer features are there: pixel perfect jumps, gravity, keys & doors ... but Braid still manages to feel fresh. Maybe it's the superb art direction: Braid is a gorgeous, gorgeous game, dripping and oozing quality from every pore. Perhaps it's the level design: it feels like Jonathan Blow and co have spent decades planning and polishing each and every level. The sound design is excellent too, and the game as a package feels very polished.

Maybe I don't have the correct aptitude to be able to comprehend reversing time, maybe I've just become shit at platformers, who knows, too many sojourns into 3D territory. Unfortunately my inferior brain lead to me having to use gamefaqs toward the end, an admission which makes me feel ashamed.

Braid is too hard, but I enjoyed every frustrating, how-the-fuck-do-I-do-this teeth-grinding second of it.

Fable 2: Concluded

I finished Fable 2 around 3 months after starting it, which made me realise that the GTA 4 reference stands also in respect to the length of the game, although I had a lot more fun on the streets of Liberty City than in the woods of Albion.

Up until the end I wasn't really enjoying Fable 2, nor was it a drag ... I was just playing it. I was getting the feeling that the next mission will be amazing, the next task will be an outstanding setpiece but it just kind of ... existed.

But then the end came and I was blown away. Previously I've mentioned the lack of perceived choice in Fable 2, but the end forces you into the matter with a choice between three ways of continuing (I won't spoil it for you. Well, maybe a little.). Suffice it to say I spent a while considering my options, but ended up with the lesser of three evils. This simple ending dramatically changed my whole experience of the game, and with it my opinion. I can't see myself going back to Fable 2, but it was one of the more enjoyable games I've played recently.

Oh, and the dog gets shot.

What's in a name?

One of the most important things (in my opinion anyways) when embarking upon a creative project is the name. I set up the blogger account, chose a template, then realised shit I need a name. Not just any name, but a good name. A name that might take days, if not weeks to decide on.

I've been in bands before and choosing a name was a massive deal, so it was the same with my first serious blog. It's my identity, my persona. Having said all that, I really wanted to call my blog The Game Age, but getting a URL was tricky as it would have been gameage.blogspot.com, and gameage sound like a verb: "I fancy a bit of gameage today". Shame really.

After a bit browsing various online thesauruses I settled on gameconcluded, it's more descriptive and sounds a little bit mathematical. I hope you like it, I do.

Mirror's Edge: Concluded

If you frequent other games blogs or news sites I'm sure you will have read plenty of Mirrors Edge commentary. It mainly centers around the fact that the main protagonist is female, and the whole Mirrors Edge experience is a fresh and new take on a crowded genre.

When I first heard about Mirrors Edge I was skeptical: how can a game succeed where so many others have failed? Jumping, in FSP games is generally a complete nightmare and so I thought DICE would have to do something very special with Mirrors Edge.

When it works, Mirrors Edge is an experience like no other. Once the tutorial is over, you are handed the freedom of the city, and once you get a handle on the controls you're away, jumping over railings, teetering hundreds of feet in the air on narrow ledges, sliding under pipes, fighting, running, RUNNING. It's an exhilerating experience quite unlike anything in any other game.

When it doesn't work, it's frustrating. Let me repeat that. When it doesn't work, it's FRUSTRATING. As I said pelting along at a fair whack, sliding and jumping is an amazing experience, but then it all comes to a screeching halt with one slightly mistimed jump. Or a mistaken move. Retry, same again. Retry, same again. Be prepared to do this a lot, because in the world of Mirrors Edge retrying is as natural a mechanic as parkour.

Mirrors Edge is set in a clean, dystopian future, and the main character is Faith, a member of an underground society and is known as a 'runner'. The visuals are spectacular, with not a hint of slowdown or draw distance problems, however be prepared for a lot of repetition in these environments, and some of the areas are uninspired to say the least.

Violence was also an issue to me. I have the distinct feeling that DICE intended Mirrors Edge to be only about the parkour: no guns involved, but top brass were afraid that an FPS with the S wouldn't sell so the changes were made. I intended to complete the game without using any of the weapons; just using non-lethal force to overcome the enemies however this proved pretty much impossible. Shooting and fighting isn't very well implemented, so if that's what you're looking for move along please.

The story is quite engaging with plenty of twists and turns. It centres around Faith's trying to clear her sister's name who, as a policewoman, was framed for the murder of a politician (it might have even been the mayor, I'm not sure). I started off with the best intentions, but ended up skipping the admittedly excellent cutscenes towards the end. I'm fickle like that.

All in all Mirrors Edge feels like an opportunity missed, and if a franchise is intended one would hope that DICE are allowed, and take, the opportunity to make something very special indeed.

Fable 2: choice

Although not without it's problems, I'm really enjoying Fable 2. I'm now roughly 12 hours in so I reckon I'm about halfway through. I'm married to a traveller named Emma, with a lovely baby girl called Liz. I own half of Bowerstone and I'm not even slightly embarrassed to say any of that.

Despite not being a big RPG fan, having never played a Final Fantasy, not understainding augments, or XP, or any of that cliched RPG nonsense, I'm fully getting into it. I see it more as GTA 4 but with forests, elves and swords instead of New York, machine guns and prostitutes. My reasoning for this is when you boil Fable 2 down to its roots, it's just a bunch of missions that constititue "go to point A, do something, go to point B, go back to A" etc. But then again, I guess that's what pretty much all adventure games are. Hell, that's what pretty much all games are.

My biggest issue with the game so far is the much-vaunted choice, or lack of in my opinion. Lionhead make it very clear that in pretty much every area of the game you have choice: you can choose to be good or evil with most interactions in the game, you can choose what kind of life you lead, which quests you take, who you impress and piss off: I could go on ... except there isn't any true choice in Fable 2: just the choices that Lionhead want you to have. I'll go back to the GTA comparison here, I don't think GTA offers any more or any less choice than Fable 2, but it feels like it does ... maybe it's something as simple as GTA not having loading times.

Choice is an incredibly complicated thing to implement in a game. I think the tech is there (the tech is there for pretty much anything), but I don't think as an industry we are mature and experienced enough to offer gamers true choice ... or even something approaching it.

Of course I haven't finished it yet so my opinion may yet change. We'll see.

Wii wish you a merry Christmas

I was lucky enough to receive a Wii for Christmas. I had a Wii once, bought on release day but sold a few months later on ebay for a healthy profit. I sold it primarily for the money (I was skint at the time), but partly also because I was unimpressed both by the technology (or lack of) inside the Wii, and the poor game selection on offer.

As far as the tech goes, I didn't find the remote particularly accurate but was most disappointed by the lack of any kind of HD or digital audio connects. The thing looked and sounded terrible on my first generation Samsung set. And as for the the games ... well, you can hardly call a set of sports-based demos and a copy of Zelda a library.

This time round though, things are different. It's still the same TV, but the games selection is vastly improved. I received the same set of sports-based demos, but also Mario Kart Wii and FIFA 09. I intend to pick up Zak and Wiki along with Mario Galaxy and Boom Blox. Can anyone recommend me anything else? Comments below or email to the left welcome.