Archive for August, 2008

I touched on this on a comment in the previous post so today i thought i’d expand on it.

If you’re between 30 and 40 then you’re very special indeed. No, not in a Mnyahh way, but in the fact that we’ve made more developments in the last 30 years than we have in the last 200. And you’ve been there for all of them. From the very beginning. Pretty much every piece of technology you use was only developed in the last 30 years. What technologies you ask?

Well how about the power of flight?

(Takes a deep breath) We’ve now got: Home Computers, Laptops, Games consoles, LCD Televisions, Digital Television, HD Video Recorders, HDTV, Mobile Phones, The Internet, MP3′s, Sat Nav’s, Freeview, Hybrid Cars, Chip & Pin, CGI in movies, Portable Video Players, iPod, CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Ray, LCD Monitors, Bluetooth, Video Games, Blogs, Video Diaries, YouTube, Google, A.I.

I’ll stop there as i’m staring into space trying to think of more stuff that were invented (or popularised) within the last 30 years. If you want to pick you could say that the Internet was invented in the 60′s but people didn’t start using it in a commercial sense until the mid 90′s.

But doesn’t that make you feel special. That you were there during the birth or infancy of each and every one of them. Who doesn’t remember hearing about this new search engine that is really simple and has a very strange name but is incredibly accurate. Or our dad’s getting a big-ass brick that cost a pound a minute and you were allowed to talk on it once. Or even your very first dvd player and dvd (mine was The Matrix). How amazing was it to watch this crystal clear picture on a new widescreen telly.

We were there for the launch of EVERY single console released to date. The fever pitch about the N64 and Playstation. The SNES vs Megadrive battle.

The pubs and clubs getting in Amstrad Sky boxes that had 9 extra channels, and BSB Squarial that only had 5.

When we young PC’s were business machines that ran Windows 3.1, and they were amazing. We were there for the release of the Atari console and the ZX81. We know what pong, frogger, asteroids, centipede and Galaga is.

Our kids won’t have a clue, even people who are in their mid-twenties would be scratching their heads at some of these things, but you can’t blame them, technology is moving so damn fast these days, everything is obsolete as soon as it comes out so those that weren’t there from the start won’t really care too much.

So what’s the next 20 years going to bring? Well, within the next 10 they’re trying to get rid of the mouse, so they want everything touch screen, HP have already brought out their touch-screen computer for £1100. Then those boffins at somewhere or another are working out on-screen movement by thought, which would be ground breaking for disabled people. Your mobile phone will control your entire life, debit cars will probably be obsolete as there’ll be fingerprint or even retina scans for purchases.

Who knows what games will be like by the time my boy is playing them, hopefully i won’t be too old and confused to play them with him. Looking forward to that first day when he actually beats me at something where i’m really trying.

Be excited about the future coz it’s going to bring a hell of a lot of interesting things. And the worst thing is, you won’t be able to resist saying ‘Well, back in my day, we had to wait upwards of 5 minutes for a game to load’ and ‘He doesn’t remember cd’s, him, look at his face’

I’m getting old and i’m getting a bit scared.

I’m 34 now, i have a child and i’m getting married next year. None of that bothers me in the slightest.

What does bother me is the fact that i seem to have played everything. Absolutely fucking everything. There’s nothing new coming out that i haven’t played in another wrapper before. Also there doesn’t seem to be that excitement about games that i used to have when i was young. Or maybe my mind is just a bit clearer now. But i just don’t have that major impatientness i used to have.

Then: Oh my god, they’re doing a sequel to Populous! Oh fucking christ, i can’t wait. I’m going to rush out and get every magazine that has even the slightest article about it.

Now: They’re doing a sequel to Skate. That’s a surprise.

It’s the same with films. I used to be able to watch movies over and over again. When i was about 11 i watched Ghostbusters and Superman every single weekend morning for about 6 months. Over and over again, fully quotable, still loved it.

Now i was looking at my dvd collection last night and realised there’s a good handful of movies in there that i haven’t even watched yet. Taxi 2, Serpico, Blood Diamond to name a couple off the top of my head. Same with dvd extras, bought Hellboy 3-disc special edition. Watched the film the other night then put it back in the box and back on the shelf. Probably never watch anything else on it.

I have the box set of the extended Lord of the Rings. Never watched a single damn thing off them, none of the 4 commentaries, no concept art, nothing. I like to own them but i really couldn’t give a fuck about watching the art directors commentary.

But i digress.

I seem to have played everything so many damn times that nothing really excites me that much any more. I don’t think i’ll get to the point old people seem to get to when i will just stop playing games. At least i really hope i don’t. That’s what’s making me scared.

You see, i love playing games, LOVE them. I love putting that disc in for the first time and watching all the company idents, then watching the opening movie that fades onto the ubiquitous ‘Press Start to Begin’.

It’s just, when you get into the game itself, it feels like the same old shit. New graphics, new locations, same fucking game i’ve played a thousand times before.

Take war games as an excellent example. It used to be WW2, then it was Vietnam, now it’s Middle East. But it’s the same game over and over again.

Call of Duty 4. I know it’s supposed to be this absolute dog’s bollocks of a game. The pinnacle of first person shooters, but i couldn’t even finish it. It just bored 10 shades of shit out of me. And i think that’s what started it all off. That i just didn’t enjoy the latest iteration of a game that i initially loved and completed. I’ll put it on occasionally just to retry it. Do one level then switch it off.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Meh. Enjoyed the first one immensely, second one i did about 3 levels then started picking the dirt out of my fingernails.

Thankfully i’m enjoying Age of Conan, been playing that solidly for the last month. Simper’s away at the moment as we normally play it together with the mic on. Hopefully we can play it a few nights a week which might be a salvation. Worst case scenario, we don’t get to play it together as we both have commitments and we just get bored after a while. That’s just gonna suck balls.

But what’s coming out in the next couple of months that i’m gonna get really excited about?

Let’s have a quick look at gamespot then…

Ok there’s a few games there, between now and october, that are catching my eye. Force Unleashed, Prototype, Fable II, Web of Shadows and Fallout 3.

That’s 5 games out of the 40-odd. Is that normal? Doesn’t feel like it to me.

Used to be the day where i will just play anything and everything and give it all a damn good go. Everything else just feels like it’s going to be rubbish. Maybe i’m too cynical these days about promising games that turn out to be shit. The latest case in hand is Too Human. All these amazing previews and interviews saying it’s the next greatest thing, comes out and it turns out to be distinctly meh! Hard not to think the same thing about most other games.

I also have this strong feeling that the new TNA game will get the amazingly average 7 out of 10. I can’t see it bringing anything new to the fray at all.

They say that anticipation is half the fun, now it seems to be all the fun.

But then there’s the ones that actually bring something new. The games that restores your faith in the programmers. I’m talking about Bioshock and Skate. 2 amazingly wonderful games. Original, well thought out, an absolute joy to play and (shock, horror) a certain degree of replayability. I don’t normally replay games. I just don’t. I also couldn’t give a shit about getting all the orbs in Crackdown or collecting all the flying rats in GTA. I try, but after an hour, it bores me to death. I’ll probably never play Rock Band on extreme coz it’s just too damn hard and i don’t have the patience to practice, practice, practice on something that has no real-world benefits. But those two. Well i’ve completed Bioshock twice and got all achievements apart from 2, and i’ve put hours and hours into Skate.

Ah well, i’m waffling now and you get the idea i’m trying to convey. That’s what you get when my mind is completely unstructured.

I’m probably the only person that cares about this game but i don’t care. That you don’t care. And i care. But i don’t care that you don’t care. Forget it.

We recently spoke with Zak Krefting, Creative Director at Shaba Games, to get the behind-the-scenes scoop on “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.”

MARVEL.COM: To what extent will the choices the player makes in the game affect the abilities Spider-Man has and how he controls? What about the status of the game’s environment, characters and such?

ZAK KREFTING: “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” gives the player control over the alien symbiote that is used by Venom in a way never before seen in a Spider-Man game.

In Black Suit you can upgrade your suit’s ichor, turning your fists and webs into 30 foot tentacles with hatchet-like teeth on the end. The more enemies you hit, the more XP you get, the more you pour it into your Black Suit. The cycle continues until you are one bad-ass Spider-Man Venom Hybrid. When you utilize these attacks on the street, anything around you gets destroyed in the process, causing panic and fear.

If this offends purists, then great! That’s why we made Red Suit classic, with fast, agile and precise moves that you’ve seen in the comics. Instead of smashing everything with brute force, you can pluck an enemy off the ground, punch him, web him back to you, punch him again then wind him up like a yo-yo and pin him to the wall with webs. A lot of red suit’s moves reflect his sense of humor in the face of adversity, while Black Suit just smashes adversity to bits.

MARVEL.COM: Will this game take on more of an RPG-style structure in the character malleability area? If so, what are the reasons for this shift in game design?

KREFTING: As the player defeats enemies and explores the city, he or she earns experience which can be spent on suit-specific upgrades. Each suit has special mechanics that feel different from each other. It is up to the player how he wants to build up Spider-Man.

Even within the suit choices, the player gets to pick what he likes the most and build it up. Certain upgrades allow extra hits if the player can combo around the controls fast enough, other abilities are more timing driven, providing a more powerful, crushing feeling of play.

This is a story driven game at the end of the day, but players don’t like to be told what to do any more than they have to. We teach the player what’s available, but let him decide what he really wants to build up, so he can fight the way he wants to.

MARVEL.COM: It looks like this game targets more of a hardcore gaming audience, following a trend of giving players more customization and freedom with their characters. How do you think that will play out on, for example, the Wii version of the game, given that the console targets the casual gaming crowd?

KREFTING: I don’t think customization is limited to a hardcore audience. Both suits have upper-end moves that won’t be immediately accessible to a casual audience, but they are not required. Hardcore gamers will find their own ways to max-out the character and exploit both suits abilities and move out of the boundaries we’ve set.

The player can also choose to have his abilities automatically bought for him.

MARVEL.COM: This Spider-Man game looks to combine the combat and swinging mechanisms more closely than ever. How is this going to work? How steep will the learning curve be for this? This is an area where motion control would be a big asset. Will this game take advantage of that with the Wii and PS3 versions?

KREFTING: One of our goals was to bridge Spider-Man’s web swinging with traditional ground combat. The player can swing in at full speed at an enemy and punt him a block or two away. With Web Strike, the player shoots a web to enemy, then pulls himself in like a homing missile.

In the beginning of the project, we wrongfully pushed the player into the new stuff too quickly. We brought a ton of hardcore and beginner players to test the game out, and we found to our surprise that the ground combat was fun as hell on it’s own, and satisfying [to] different players. We had too much to throw at the player at once. Fortunately, this let us find sweet spots to unlock new mechanics just when the player is looking for something new to add to his arsenal.

Another goal was to take the player up onto the buildings themselves. We carefully mapped the controls so that no matter where the player is fighting, on the ground, on a skyscraper or in an air brawl with Vulture, the moves and controls are intuitive between the modes.

Does the player have to juggle enemies across the city, onto walls and over buildings to beat the game? No, but he won’t unlock everything nor master being Spider-Man.

MARVEL.COM: Even in the advertising campaign for the game, you’re trying to give the player as many options as possible for how the game will be marketed/packaged. It’s fair to say the main theme of the entire game is control. Why such a decisive shift from previous Spider-Man games which followed relatively linear paths?

KREFTING: We don’t have a movie license to adhere to, which allows us to play with the characters and abilities in such a way that would never make sense if it was linear.

MARVEL.COM: How interactive/destructible are the environments?

KREFTING: New York’s streets provide an unending stream of heavy ordinance, in the form of cars that explode on impact. Enemies can utilize this ability as well, even “sucking” objects with anti gravity weapons. The majority of street-level building fronts crumble if they are hit, neon lights explode and fall.

Spider-Man can crawl and swing on anything, of course. If the player is going fast he can literally slide up buildings, perform a, uh, Spider-Plant, then slide down the building. It has to be seen and felt to be appreciated.

MARVEL.COM: Will there be alternate game endings depending on the choices the player makes? What’s the replay value going to be like?

KREFTING: This game is huge. We’ve been playing [for thousands] of hours, and still come up with new strategies to use. Yesterday I finally learned how to counter-attack and now that’s all I’m doing.

There are also a few surprises at the end of the game based on your choices, that you’d have to play twice to see.

MARVEL.COM: What, if any, continuity does this game line up with? Does it eschew more towards the comics, previous games, movies, a mix, its own thing?

KREFTING: “Web of Shadows” has very realistic environments and settings, with all the effects of an over the top fighting game, and a roster that could never be contained in a 2 hour movie. Having made a few, we borrowed heavily from extreme sports games for upgrades, combo style moves speed and controls. You can push yourself or relax and just have fun.

MARVEL.COM: Does the storyline have any specific influences from comic story arcs or other sources?

KREFTING: There were several early concepts that we played around with, but we chose the one that would best reflect the new combat mechanics we were going for.

What is the point of wall combat if you can only fight enemies on the ground? We needed enemies that could do everything Spider-Man could do. We needed thousands of them all over the city so the player can link them together. All this meant we needed thousand “Venoms” to fight.

A symbiote invasion was the only answer. Zombies just aren’t fast enough, and a Ninja invasion was just plain stupid.

MARVEL.COM: The game looks really fast-paced and the camera angles are always changing.The camera is going to be very important. How much control will the player have over the camera angles? Will there be options for perspective changes (first- or third-person)?

KREFTING: There is a powerful locking mechanism that allows the player to focus on a single enemy, even if that enemy is in a crowd. This allows the player to do incredibly acrobatic maneuvers during a fight. If targeting is turned off, the player can move the camera around freely.

If an enemy is sneaking up on the player, and is about to pounce, Spider-Man’s sense goes off, giving the player time to evade, block or counter attack.

“Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” swings onto consoles in October. Stay glued to Marvel.com for more news, videos and screenshots. And be sure to visit the official “Spider-Man: Web of Shadows” site.

Back to games now seeing as we’re coming out the dark depression that is August.

We’ve got 2 games coming out this week, neither are much cop. Too Human is supposed to be an enormous letdown full of repetitive combat and pointless rpg style levelling. Gamespot have given it a massive 5.5. Which i’m sure will cause a stir with Microsoft Game Studios as it has the game plastered all over the wallpaper on the front screen. Everyone remembers what happened with Kane & Lynch when exactly the same happened.

Then also Tiger Woods 2009 is out this week, which is exactly the same as 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003. But this one has better lighting! Woo!!!!!!111!1!1!

It’s worse than the yearly smackdown games.

Speaking of Smackdown, the new TNA Impact! comes out soon and i hate to say this, but it just looks like the boring old crap that is wrestling games, where you’re not so much playing it as pressing buttons to watch a couple of seconds of animation from your chosen character. Of course, this gets really sodding dull after an hour of watching the same german suplex and leg stomp over and over again.

So next week we’ve got Mercenaries 2 coming out which isn’t going to sell much as people are saving their money for the decent stuff. Facebreaker, which just won’t be as good as Fight Night Round 3, so it’ll be shite. And the new Viva Piñata, which i won’t be playing coz i’m not 7.

That’s 2 weeks of fuck all then.

The week after that is TNA Impact! which i’ve already mentioned, NHL 09 which i won’t be getting coz it’s a sports game and you know how i feel about sports games. And Supreme Commander, which was toss when it came out 18 months ago on the PC.

Now that’s 3 weeks of shit and shit all.

September 14th is Force Unleashed day which will probably keep me entertained for a week or so until…

The new Silent Hill game; Homecoming. Which might be good if they don’t completely screw it up and actually have a decent story in this one.

Ah well, back to Conan for at least the next month.

Oh, forgot Spore on the 5th of September. That should be fun. Might even buy that one!

Well, we actually got into Reading. Not quite sure how, but we did. We turned up about half 2 outside Kwik Fit, met some bloke who kept reassuring us ‘Don’t worry lads, it’ll be foine, you’ll get in nah problem’. They put on a ‘festival guest’ band on our wrists and we just walked through the main entrance and into the arena, then they took the bands off us and went and got the others (it was a case of 4 in, then 3 in).

So by half 3 we were watching Dropkick Murphy’s and losing each other in the crowd!

Tenacious D were most entertaining, although i think i preferred them at Birmingham, as you could actually see them on stage and they had a lot longer. But it was still good anyway. Metallica were ok, but i don’t really know many of their songs so it all kinda sounded the same to me. And they looked old, especially Lars, who’s a cock anyway.

Wish i’d have been there for the weekend now, one day just wasn’t long enough.

Sooooooo, i’ve bought some tickets for next year as the pre-sale came out this morning on seetickets. So no hassles or problems this time next year. No arsing around trying to get some. No fucking touts stealing money off me. No getting depressed on the thursday morning coz ‘i would be setting up the tent by now’ as i WILL be setting up the tent.

I know the drunkymunky is all ready to come with me next year but a lot can happen in the next 365 days so we’ll see this time next year what actually happens.

Thought i may as well stick this post up just to warn anyone else who might consider using them to buy sold-out tickets.

DON’T.

They’re scum. They sell tickets that they don’t necessarily have. Or even if they have some, they’ll sell more than they have so most people receive nothing.

So hopefully you’ll find this page from google if you’re doing research on the net about them. Just don’t. No matter how appealing it looks, you’re just going to be disappointed. Friends of mine bought tickets for this years reading festival and they haven’t come. Annoying thing was paperticket said that they would come today, well they haven’t. And of course it’s now too late for any kind of contingency.

Get them official, every time. If you really can’t get them officially then ebay is your best bet, but find one that has a lot of feedback of selling tickets or that one guy who’s bought one and can’t go. They’re your best bet.

Fuck all the touts, fuck ‘em in the their stupid fucking asses. If someone wants to get them in a hall or something and then firebomb the building and block the exits then you won’t hear any complaints from me.

If Reading just did the same registration thing as Glastonbury then no-one would have any of these problems. Fine, it’s a pain registering and sending photos all all that crap. But hey, at least the people who buy the tix are the people who want to go, rather than some twat buying 20 tickets on a credit card then selling them on for 300% face value. Fucking cunts, all of them.

Well it’s alright. It’s not a rubbish game by any means. Could do with some tweaking with the targeting system, even a left-right next target type thing would be nice. Camera angle is similar and that could do with sorting out a little, not a lot, just a little.

The demo’s pretty short, and you can race through it in about half an hour. I can see it getting around 8 out of 10, it’s good but not fantastic.

Plus points:

• Very good gfx and face models
• Havok engine works well and you really do feel like you’re pulling the place apart
• It’s Star Wars! And you’re evil!!
• It’s probably going to have a really good story
• Opening doors and smashing glass is very impressive

Minus Points

• It’s a bit easy
• The demo doesn’t exactly showcase an impressive level
• And feels a bit boring
• There’s very little need for your lightsaber in the demo as you just generally throw shit around
• The demo’s too short
• It’s NOT the dog’s bollocks like i’d hyped it up in my mind to be
• You know the full game’s going to have some annoying stacking style puzzle

Throughout all the shit that’s gone on this week there’s a shiny thing in there, the fact that Force Unleashed demo has come out today. I even nipped home during lunch so i could set it going, which i believe has finished downloading by now.

So i can ignore the fact that i’m probably not going to reading this weekend, or indeed, instead of sitting in a field enjoying the atmos and smoking like it’s going out of fashion, i’m sat in work writing this and watching the clock so i can go home and play a 2 hour demo of a game that isn’t coming out for another month.

On a bit of a downer today as it’s the first day of Reading Festival and instead of sitting in a field enjoying the sunshine with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other i’m sat here at work doing dull things.

Of course, the double downer is the fact that i may not go to Reading at all due to SOS Masterticket being complete hellish robbing bastards. I think eBay is dropping slightly with the prices as a lot of people are travelling today so lets say that the guy’s tickets come tomorrow as promised then it might not cost me as much to get an emergency ticket.

Hey ho. There’s always next year i suppose.

Got home this evening and the missus told me she’s just heard on local radio that SOS Masterticket have done a runner with all the money. Had a quick search for them online and every single entry is talking about them being scamming fuckers. That’s the company i bought my Reading ticket from.

Try it, type in SOS Masterticket into google and see what comes up.

Their website has gone down and the phone number doesn’t work (0207 978 0136).

Should have known when they displayed a Spain address as their place of business.

I know it’s definitely not going to come. Phoned my bank and they said it’s looking like good news but i have to report it after the festival has finished so it can be proven that i never got received the goods i paid for.

I’m not so much gutted about the money, it’s just more that i’m not going now.

Most annoying thing is, everyone else in the band haven’t received theirs either, they’ve been assured that the tix will arrive on friday morning but that sounds a little suspect to me. All the tix have been sent out now so there’s no reason to get them that late.

Other than it gives them little room for complaints when they don’t arrive. Even if they do arrive that then gives me friday daytime to scour ebay for some robbing bastard to sell me one for twice the face value AND get it to me by saturday.