For those of you who haven't heard of it, Steam is a PC based download program that hosts lots of new games, demos and other media. It's owned by that great developer Valve, and apart from developing genre defining titles, such as Half Life, Left 4 Dead and Counterstrike, they update it weekly with various media, including full games, demos and more. This week's demos included one that I had only seen a small part of before and as such I wasn't sure how good it would be - that title being Trine. The demo downloaded very quickly, and soon I was listening to the opening story.

Labels: Demo Impressions, Jacques Hulme, Steam, Trine

Labels: Beta Impressions, Jacques Hulme, Uncharted 2

Sucker Punch’s PS3 debut revolves around a deliveryman in Empire City that unknowingly sets off a huge bomb in the city centre, causing the city to be taken over by a plague and your character, Cole, to receive electricity-related superpowers. InFamous is an original game with no games or fiction (save a small 24 page comic) to come before it, so Sucker Punch really had to work hard to nail Cole, and Empire City’s personality to make this a first-rate origin story, and they did. I thought that Cole’s voice acting, while mocked by many in the press, is fitting to a character that unwittingly killed thousands of people, and that his friends, Zeke and John were well fleshed out, and definitely stood up on their own.

Moral Choices in videogames have been as “in” as Keyboard Cat ever since Mass Effect, and InFamous willingly jumps on the bandwagon. Along the way to the game’s ending you will be confronted by moral choices. These can vary from choosing whether you want to have a “good” or “evil” poster with your face on it, to deciding the fate of the city later on in the game. Your choices in these moments push your “karma” (My name is Cole?) towards good or evil, which changes the way normal citizens, and other characters react to you. There are also some powers which can only be unlocked by going one way or the other down the karma path, which basically forces you to be all the way good or all the way bad - there is no ‘neutral’ karma in this game. I played through the game twice, once good and once bad and found that the powers were a little more fun while being evil, but that I really felt awful making some of the decisions I did.

As the game develops Cole gets more and more powerful leaving you with the decision of “do I take over the city, or save what’s left”. The game definitely does a good job of giving you the powers to act on your decision with awe-inspiringly lethal powers. These powers basically replace guns that you would expect to find in a game of this genre. The normal lightning attack replicates a rifle, the Megawatt Hammer replicates a rocket launcher, and Lighting Storm replicates…I don’t know, something really badass. All of the powers are upgraded using XP earned by completing missions or killing bad guys – but the upgrades you get depend on whether you are good or evil. Good powers generally receive upgrades that make the powers more precise and lethal, whereas evil powers just cause an extra area of damage, making you feel like a dick for killing hundreds of innocent people.

Alongside the main mission there are lots of distractions. There are trophies for any people (such as myself) who are sufficiently insane to collect all two hundred and something “shards” and thirty something “dead-drops” (which are audio clips that help flesh out the story really well). It took me about 30 hours to go through the story twice and get the platinum trophy, but I’ve heard from others that it can take up to 40 hours to do.

However much I have poured over InFamous’ good points, it isn’t a perfect game. The game starts off really hard, enough so that I nearly stopped playing, because at that point Cole hasn’t got all of his powers. But after the first 3 or 4 hours it gets easier, to a point at the end of the game were a small flick of the down button can kill 7 enemies effortlessly. This end-game power is actually great, as it really feels like Cole has developed from a small battery to a nuclear power plant in terms of power, which is, if truth be told, very rewarding.

Another bad point, if minor, is the main bad guy; Kessler. He may be tough and, at times, badass, but his voice acting is atrocious. Seriously, he sounds like the stupidest person on the planet. The only comparison I can make is that of the voice of the doll in the Saw movies. Ugh.

Anyway, I digress, InFamous is a great example of how an open world, superhero action game should be made. At no point does the game stop you from having immense amounts of fun. Everyone with a PS3 that likes action games should buy this. Good job Sucker Punch!

9/10

Matt

Labels: InFamous, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Review

Nintendo is widely considered to be one of the three main competitors in today’s commercial videogame industry. As of October 2008, Nintendo have sold over 470 million hardware units and 2.7 billion software units (yeah, hark at me with my knowledge of complicated statistics and access to Wikipedia). So, undoubtedly, they’re doing pretty darn well for themselves – in fact, very well for a company originally set up to produce handmade trading cards. But, for all the numbers and reputation, there’s always been a little something which has bugged me about Ninty.

Now, please don’t get me wrong – I love Nintendo as much as the next guy. Unless of course the next guy happens to be the boss of Sony or Microsoft, in which case my last assertion no longer stands. They’ve had some ideas and produced some products which were truly groundbreaking in terms of computer games. Mass distribution of a modest little videogame (which we like to call Tetris); introduction of motion sensing games technology to the mass market (not counting the EyeToy, which was essentially a camera with plug and play cartridges); and the invention of the Gameboy (one of which almost every gamer must have owned at some point in their lifetimes). They’ve done some things which really hit the spot. But they really don’t make up for the flaws which Nintendo, as a company, has.

Take for example, this list of top Nintendo games: Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda (yep, all of them), WarioWare: Twisted! and Animal Crossing. Now, please don’t think I’m moaning for moaning’s sake, but nearly all the half decent games which are Nintendo first party are always so childish. It seems that there must be something in the Nintendo contract which goes something along the lines of: “all games produced by first party developers for Nintendo systems must adhere to the namby-pamby policy”. Seriously.

Because, with maybe the exception of a few games which fall out of this net (Red Steel, No More Heroes and Killer7, to name a few), almost everything that is published on a Nintendo platform has the same oversimplified, childish sheen to it, as though their systems aren’t for serious gamers or adults, but children with half an hour of spare time after school.

But that’s not all. It’s the feeling of unprofessionalism which Nintendo tends to give off nowadays. Their game lineups are never anything to shout about, their IPs are overstretched to snapping-point, and their E3 keynotes almost always ooze with awkwardness. Nintendo just don’t do themselves justice – take, for example, the woman who featured in both the 2008 and 2009 Nintendo E3 keynotes – who seriously thought it was a good idea to put her (up above) on stage? To be honest, I’ve seen five year olds with more marketing capability than her. Hate to be cruel, but it’s true – they don’t use their assets well enough.

And there’s just one more thing; the lack of original IPs which let all of Nintendo’s platforms down. If I had a pound for every time a Mario or Zelda game was released on a Nintendo system, I’d probably be living it up in the Bahamas by now. They hardly ever think up anything that’s new, innovative or even just a tad different, and on the odd occasion they do, it’s never long before they fall back into their old ways. Nintendo, take heed of this warning: there are only so many times that we can play a game as an elf dressed in green or a little Italian bloke with a moustache before we kill someone.

So, Nintendo, listen up and take some sort of notice, because I will say this only once. If you could bring in some new IPs, brush up your act and your professional image and try not to make all your games with a target market of five year old primary school children in mind, you’ll actually do alright. Yes, you might well have created the first decent motion sensing technology in games, and yes, you might have been the first people to license Tetris for your handheld, but for crying out loud, you can’t carry on like you are at the minute. No one’s going to take you seriously if you carry on at this rate.

And, for the love of Pete, sack the woman who presented E3 08.

Linford

Labels: Nintendo, Rant

Before E3 started earlier this month, I made a list of ‘dream game’ announcements that I would love to have seen happen. But did any of them happen?

Dream Number 1: New Kojima IP

No. Kojima-san announced that he was working on a new PSP game – Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and a 360/PS3 game based on Raiden’s story – Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Despite a little bit of disappointment that Kojima isn’t trying something new, I am looking forward to seeing more about Peace Walker’s story which is set in 1970s Costa Rica during the height of the Cold War.

Dream Number 2: Final Fantasy 7/8 re-make, or re-release

There wasn’t any hint of a re-make at E3 but I correctly predicted that FF7 would be released on the PS Store during or on the day of Sony’s press conference. This game is sure to sell A LOT on the store, and hopefully will push Square to release more of their PS1 classics.

Dream Number 3: The Elder Scrolls V

Nope. Bethesda is hard at work on Fallout 3 DLC, Fallout: New Vegas, WET, Rouge Warrior and Brink.

Dream Number 4: Mirror’s Edge 2

It’s happening. While strictly not at E3, Mirror’s Edge 2 was announced to be in development a couple of days ago. Hopefully it’ll retain the original’s amazing art style.

Dream Number 5: Bully 2

When Mr. Jack Tretton, Sony Computer Entertainment’s CEO, came on stage on the 2^nd of June and announced the PS3 exclusive Agent, he briefly mentioned Bully. Awesome, I thought, he’s going to announce a new Bully! But alas, it was not to be. Still; Agent does sound good.

1.5/5 isn’t that bad…oh well, maybe next year.

Matt

Labels: Bully, E3 2009, FF7, FF8, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, MGS, TES

In the UK; June and May represent the times when all students collectilely use exams as an excuse to not do anything else hard. This exam period proved no different, and GGTL got a little...quiet.

Labels: Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Misc., Writer's note

The Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Multiplayer Beta has been out for almost a week now and reviews are coming in thick and fast, most of which seem to show the current multiplayer gameplay in a good light. However, with these reviews have come two new videos which show some of the maps in play, online.

Plaza Showdown, the first of the maps shown in these new videos, seems to be set in a darkened courtyard. With broken walls, upturned cars and sandbags there is plenty of cover in this map. From what I can gather, the map is quite big and seems to include several side streets which all lead to the central courtyard. There also seems to be several floors to the level which will provide good spots for snipers. This map looks very promising and, if all of the maps are as highly polished as this, Naughty Dog shouldn't have anything to worry about.



The second video showcases a map named Village Firefight. Set in a village, this small map seems to fit in well with the feel of Uncharted 2 as, like the Plaza map, it also contains a lot of cover. Again, this map also seems to provide a vast expanse to roam and hide away in. The war-torn atmosphere to the map creates a dead and lifeless feel, with only the odd splatter of colour; usually provided by the fire. This map is also shaping up to impress and dazzle the fans.



Jacques

Labels: Beta, Jacques Hulme, Trailer, Uncharted 2, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Video

 

So, while everyone’s eyes are firmly secured on Infinity Ward’s upcoming sequel to the bestselling Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2, it turns out that Call of Duty 7 is currently being worked on by Infinity Ward’s arch-rival, Treyarch (the people responsible for the Spiderman games and that other little title – what was it called? – Call of Duty: World at War).

It doesn’t seem as though Treyarch are letting Infinity Ward have all the limelight. David Kim, one of Treyarch’s Senior Animators, revealed that he is currently working on Call of Duty 7 via his online CV. Kim states “I am currently on my second title as a senior animator in the games industry with Activision / Treyarch on Call Of Duty 7.”

This is no surprise, the alternating dev cycle has been going on for quite a while now. With Modern Warfare 2 enjoying the limelight at the minute, and due for release this coming November, it’s likely that Call of Duty 7 will be hitting shelves at around the same time in 2010.

As for Modern Warfare 2, MTV Multiplayer managed to grab a quick interview with Robert Bowling, community manager over at Infinity Ward about the omission of the ‘Call of Duty’ prefix from the game’s title. The reason for the name change is because, “this is just not another one in the Call of Duty franchise. This is a direct sequel to Modern Warfare. This has never happened in Call of Duty before. They’re typically all their own campaigns, totally unrelated to the previous one.”

So, there you have it. Modern Warfare 2 will be a direct continuation of the story in Call of Duty 4. I’m looking forward to playing through some more intense SAS-based missions. Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, we also know where Call of Duty 7 will be set. Vietnam and Cuba, anyone?

Linford

Labels: Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch

It’s odd to think, with today’s gaming culture, high-definition graphics and internet-based, 256 player battles, that even twenty-five years ago, gaming was going strong. True, it might not have been the most immersive or graphically intense gameplay ever to have graced a gaming platform, but it was gaming nonetheless, and today – twenty five years since what I consider as the beginning of the gaming culture we know and enjoy now – we pay our tribute to the legend which catapulted gaming from tech-heads in a dark room to pensioners in bungalows, children in playgrounds, and pregnant mothers approaching labour in a hospital bed. That game is, of course, Tetris.

Over twenty five years, much has changed. Berlin is now one city, instead of two divided up by a very large garden wall; British Telecom has been privatised; and we’ve had at least three different prime ministers. But one thing that hasn’t changed: the success and popularity which one small, not-so-technically-advanced game developed on a Soviet Elektronika 60 computer came to have.

While studying at the Soviet Union’s Academy of Science, a twenty-nine year old Alexey Pajitnov first designed the bare bones for a game which would, eventually, go on to define the term ‘arcade gaming’. Inspired by the classic riddles and puzzles which Pajitnov was so fond of as a child, the earliest version of what we now know as Tetris was only ten levels long – a restriction of the hardware which the game was first designed on. The game became known as ‘Tetris’ – a title created from a combination of the Greek prefix ‘tetra’, meaning ‘four’, and the name of Pajitnov’s favourite sport: tennis.

"The program wasn't complicated," Pajitnov told the Guardian. "There was no scoring, no levels. But I started playing and I couldn't stop. That was it."

The concept wasn’t at all complicated: from the top of the screen a series of differently-shaped "blocks" fall slowly towards the bottom. The player can turn each block as it falls or move it sideways, but at the lowest point the block will stay and a new one will begin falling. If the blocks fill a line without gaps, they disappear, and the player gains points. Otherwise they pile up, giving the player less and less time before they hit the "bottom". Allow the blocks to pile up to the top of the screen, and it’s game over.

And that was the beauty of Tetris – it’s utter simplicity. It made it fun and frustrating, amazing and addictive all at once. It infested the dreams of those who played it, and was even (at one point) considered by the US as a possible Soviet plot to distract the youth of the US. There’s no denying that, in some form, Tetris has been spoken about by pretty much every person on the planet.

The game’s success didn’t really start until 1988, when a Dutch games publisher by the name of Henk Rogers saw potential in Pajitnov’s brain child.

"I first saw it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January of 1988. My first impression was that this game was too simple, that there was nothing to it. Then I came back and played it again. And again. Soon I realised there was something going on – no game had grabbed me at a show just like that."

And it was that moment which made Tetris into what we know now – two people, one product, the right place at the right time. Rogers fought off heavy competition in order to secure the rights to Pajitnov’s Tetris, and – with the help of ally and then-boss of Nintendo America, Minoru Arakawa – managed to propel Tetris to success, bundled with every Game Boy.

It was this love affair with Nintendo’s handheld, the Game Boy, that made Tetris a household name. Without the backing of such as popular games system behind it, Tetris may well have faded away into the oblivion of time, lost somewhere back in the 1980’s, its genius undiscovered. But Henk Rogers was a motivated, determined, driven Dutchman, and with his expertise and connections he managed to license the game’s rights to companies worldwide.

However, the success of Tetris barely made an impression on Pajitnov – partly because he didn’t start earning anything from Tetris until 1996, when the rights for the game finally reverted back to him when he left to pursue a career with Microsoft in the US. Before then, all the royalties were claimed by the Kremlin, as – under Russia’s then-communist leadership – the rights for the game belonged to the state.

Both Pajitnov and Rogers now work on licensing the game to developers and publishers worldwide. And the popularity of Tetris shows no likelihood of slowing – one game developed deep in the bowels of the Soviet Academy has spawned hundreds of different versions on various platforms, art, television shows, scientific experiments and even furniture.

And we mustn’t forget that, without the kick-start that was Tetris, gaming may never have made the geek to chic change which now makes gaming a multi-million pound, worldwide followed industry. Which is why I am proud to pay tribute to the grandfather of modern gaming: Tetris.

Linford

Labels: Tetris, Tribute, Writer's note

On the off-chance you didn't know - GGTL will be liveblogging E3 09 on our E3 sister site: ggtlate3.blogspot.com. Go check it out later on when we will be covering Microsoft's press conference live at 6:20pm UK time.

Labels: E3 2009, Matthew, Matthew Meadows, Microsoft