Ok. I recently embarked on a journey to delve into the Community Games on Xbox Live with the intention of buying and reviewing one game each week for this here website. If you don’t actually know what I’m referring to, then you’re probably not alone. Buried somewhere within the New Xbox Experience’s vast array of squares (Game Marketplace > Explore Game Content > Community Games, to be precise), you’ll find about 200 titles begging you to play them. You see, these are all indie games. We’re not talking World of Goo levels of indie-ness, oh no, plenty of these are proper bedroom coded, one man and his dog and a tin of uncooked baked beans type games. In a nutshell, it’s essentially Xbox Live Arcade, albeit without the stringent quality assurance policies. Plus it’s cheaper too with games starting from as little as 200 points.
So yes, my journey… Read on »
One eagle-eyed reader has latched onto ground-breaking research currently consuming American scientists’ man hours: the probability of Princess Peach been in Another Castle = 7/8. In other words, every 1 in 8 castles you encounter as a fat, Italian plumber will contain the damsel in distress you’re looking for. OR… look at it ANOTHER WAY and you can scientifically say, including rounding, that 90% of the time the dastardly Bowser will take his hostage somewhere other than the place you’ve just arrived at expecting and hoping to find the Princess only to be told that she’s in “another castle”.
I got back from a Dungeons & Dragons session a few hours ago, and it provided some insight into just how far behind computer-based RPGs are. Let me give you an example: in World of Warcraft, you might cast a dizzying array of pre-prepared spells in a precise order, so as to inflict the most amount of damage on your terrifying foes. But at Nick’s place today, our new fighter suddenly dropped into JRPG mode as he ran circles around what our DM, Jen, portrayed as a terrifying, violent, and most importantly, hungry dungeon-dweller, and what Jon described as “Aaah, fuck.” Trailing his sword along the stone floor, he launched into an aerial spin and whipped his sword round straight into the vile creature.
And promptly missed.
I finally got a chance to look at Halo Wars this weekend – unfortunately we don’t have the space to cover all the games we’d like to in the magazine, and even if we did, our termly release schedule means we’d be telling you about games you played months ago anyhow. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of the blogoweb, I can tell you my thoughts as I think them. Let’s try that now.
In Issue One we did a Top Ten of great, life-changing moments in gaming. They were times when you sat back and knew – you knew – that this was going to stay with you for some time. Meeting Alyx for the first time in Half-Life 2. That first big jump in Mirror’s Edge. Most of you probably remember how to get the first magic flute in Super Mario Bros. 3. Well, I’m having one of those moments right now. I’m playing StoryTron. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever played before.
The mag’s out and lying around, mostly next to your usual source of Felix. If you have a few minutes to spare, go pick up a copy. Personally, as someone who never bothers checking out the finished product until someone forces me to, I’m pretty damn impressed by the attention to detail shone on this issue by Tomo, Mike and Az. It looks absoutely fantastic.
And the content ain’t half-bad either.
One of the reasons I find it hard to watch horror movies nowadays is because of those gosh-darned introductory pieces where everything is happy, the sun is shining, and all is well with the world. Partly because, hell, I’m here to be intimidated so let’s bring on the dismemberment, but also because secretly I’m more scared by those bits than by any other segment in the film. Even that bit from Eternal Sunshine where the faces go all gooey. Even that. So let me tell you now that not only should you play Eversion, but you should play it knowing full well that this is a horror game. And that’s a screenshot of it above.
Because you would possibly need one after HAWX. Slapping the Tom Clancy brand on a game usually means a very decent outing full of improbably martial story-lines and meaty shooting action. HAWX is the latest in the long-running, multifarious franchise that looks to extol the virtues of what is fast becoming the poster-child for any game with a military bias: Private Military Companies (PMCs). In this increasingly bleak version of the future, even our boys in the sky are nothing but trash-talkin’, hip-hoppin’ mercs. Doesn’t sound like they’ll be enjoying too many beachball matches then.
23:09
Mutiny within the ranks: Mirror’s Edge is awesome
by Tomo
The second issue of the magazine has only just hit the news stands and there’s already a drastic civil war being waged inside the dungeons of Another Castle. A certain Samir reviewed DICE’s recent first-person platformer for Issue 2 awarding it two stars, essentially pointing out that whilst Mirror’s Edge is a good game, the repetitious sound of breaking bones as you plummet 40-floors to your death and the designers’ decision to make combat mandatory later on in the game made for an experience too frustrating to be worthy of glowing praise.
Read on »
Tags: DICE, EA, Mirror's Edge
Posted in Another Look, Comment, Issue 2 | 10 comments »