Tuesday 15 November 2011

The Round-up: Microsoft say "Gaming doesn't have it's head in the clouds (yet)"

Guten Tag, Konichiwa, Bienvenue, welcome and come on in. It's time once again for your semi-regular gaming round-up of the week brought to you by the Game For A Laugh Blog and KillerKeyboard.com.


It's been a strange week all told. England beat Spain 1-0 at Wembley, marking the first time that the Three Lions have beaten the number one team in the world since rankings were publicly printed, Italy has finally seen the back of the Bunga-bunga obsessed playboy prime minister Silvio "shuddupayaface" Berlusconi, and in news closer to this sites roots, MINECRAFT HAS GONE GOLD!!!

"So, yes, Minecraft has gone gold. :D" - @notch

I know, i was shocked too. I guess two years was enough time to work out all the bugs, and it's nice to see that the game is to all intents and purposes "finished", but can a game like Minecraft ever truly be finished? I foresee a long lifespan for the game punctuated by many, many updates (some big, some small) but I don't think that this Gold version of the game will represent the bulk of the finished article. Either way, it'll be fun to play.


In news that will worry no-one, it was revealed today that the Unity game engine will not support Windows 7 phones due to it being a "relatively closed system". According to David Helgason, the CEO of Unity Technologies, the company might be looking at supporting Windows 8 instead.

Not a big loss in the world of mobile gaming, especially in a world where iOS and Android dominate the smart phone market by such a great margin.


There are an awful lot of unhappy Batman fans out there right now, and almost all of them appear to be Xbox owners.

Since the launch of Batman: Arkham City players of the 360 version have complained that they are losing game saves. While some suspect it's to do with the Catwoman DLC, nothing has as of yet been confirmed. Warner Brothers, who published the sequel to Rocksteady's critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, have acknowledged the glitch and are asking users for information regarding the circumstances under which the data loss occurred. If you've suffered the loss of Save data in your game you can visit the official forum and fill in the survey to help get to the bottom of all of this.


Talking of DLC, do you remember when games developers used to wait a couple of weeks before announcing any forthcoming DLC? I do, with great fondness. Unfortunately it's not a practice that Ubisoft agree with, since they just announced their first DLC pack for AC: Revelations entitled "Ancestors". The DLC itself is a multiplayer character pack containing 4 unique skins including the Gladiator and The Privateer, each character has their own unique skill set and animations to give more variety to your online play and doesn't go live until December 12th, so at least there's a decent gap from the games release date, but if they knew about it already why not put it in the game to start with?

Oh wait, money. Doh!


In slightly better news for Xbox 360 fans it turns out that a free avatar item is available for a short time to celebrate Microsoft's 10th anniversary in the console business. The Xbox anniversary prop fires streamers and glitter into the air and does nothing else of real worth, but since it's free you can't really complain now, can you?

It's on the avatar marketplace until Saturday, so grab it while it's free and prepare to be underwhelmed...

Staying with the Xbox theme, some news that came out of GDC China this past week after Microsoft's Brian Prince spoke about the role of Cloud gaming in video games today. He stated his belief that OnLive style systems represented the "distant future of gaming in the cloud," mainly due to the high bandwidth required to stream high quality game feeds in real time with minimal slow down. On the subject of Cloud related features coming to the "Xbox platform" Prince remained tight lipped, He did go as far as to promise cloud specific features but wouldn't be drawn further on the subject.

Is it possible that the next Xbox might have some form of OnLive style streaming component? or maybe Microsoft want to emulate Sony's move towards Cloud based game saves? Either way, only time will tell on this one (okay, maybe insider sources as well).


I downloaded the free version of DCUO recently after reporting a 1000% increase in the population in the last round-up, and while it took damn near 8 hours to fully download and install I'm happy to report that the game itself runs smoothly and is easy as pie to pick up.

Apparently I'm not the only one who downloaded the MMO recently, as it was reported at the weekend that DCUO has now attracted 1 million new players since it went F2P. Maybe this was the move they needed to make all along? Now they just need to keep hold of those players...


NINTENDO NEWS!!!

To paraphrase the great Mark Twain, the reports of the 3DS' demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

That's according to a statement from Nintendo that claims the 3DS is well on track to sell more units this year than the original DS did in its first 12 months. That isn't necessarily all good news though, as it was only when the DS Lite was released that DS sales really picked up to a respectable level and then sky rocketed into the "ridiculous-phere". The 3DS might very well sell more units than the DS did in year one, but until they re-jig the console to include a second stick as standard they're doomed to sell a disappointing number year on year.

Moving over to Nintendo's other underwhelming console, Tecmo financial results have revealed that Ninja Gaiden 3: Razors Edge will be released as a launch title for the Wii-U when the system débuts around April 2012. The game on which Razors Edge is based was launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 some time ago...

Finishing up the Nintendo news on a high note, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed to GamesRadar that Shigeru Miyamoto has talked about the possibility of bringing old school 2D Zelda games up to date, by giving them the 3D treatment. Assuming the idea is to give them a 3DS or stereoscopic 3D update It's an interesting concept, and is certainly something that would work well for a top down perspective Zelda game such as my favourite, A Link to the Past.



Ban Hammers at the ready, Lock and Load!

It appears that Dice have been busy bees since they got the Battlefield servers working, identifying anyone taking advantage of cheap exploits in the BF3 multiplayer. Wielders of the sacred Hammer of Banning have taken a "zero tolerance policy for cheating," that they find on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and so far hundreds of accounts have been deleted. A patch is in the works to remedy the more common exploits as well as common complaints such as flash-lights that are hotter and brighter than the sun itself.

You have been warned.



Would it be a round-up without the weekly look at the top ten best selling games on all platforms? No, probably not, so here it is.

WARNING: This top ten is unsuitable for Gamers with a sensitivity to Zumba Fitness being popular.

1.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
2.The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
3.Battlefield 3
4.FIFA 12
5.Just Dance 3
6.Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
7.Moshi Monsters: Moshling Zoo
8.Batman: Arkham City
9.Zumba Fitness
10.Wii Party

I have no earthly idea what a Moshi monster is, but the fact it sold more than Zumba means it's okay by me. CoD:MW3 is, unsurprisingly at the top of the mountain this week after setting an all time Video Games sales record that surpassed that of 2010's MW2. Skyrim bats clean up while BF3 manages a creditable 3rd place this week.

FIFA is an unstoppable juggernaut and somehow manages to hang around in the 4th champions league qualifying spot and Batman come up a little short at number 8 on the list, just below the aforementioned Moshi Monsters.

Anyone reading this who has bought a copy of Zumba fitness should hang their heads in shame, Bad consumer, naughty consumer, did you do this?!

Right then, I'm off before I lose all hope for humanity. Maybe the Mayans were right, and it's Zumba that will end civilisation as we know it...

Thursday 10 November 2011

The Round-up: Best bye bye

It's been a while chums, my apologies for not putting up a news article in a while. I'm sure you'll agree though, there's been quite a number of AAA titles launched in the past month and they all needed to be played. So, on with the show.



Best Buy Europe, a venture which is part owned by both Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse, has announced the closure of all 11 of its UK megastores with approximately 1100 jobs being affected. Most of the affected workers will be redeployed to Carphone Warehouse stores, with some of these retail outlets being re-branded as "Wireless World". The Best Buy UK experiment lasted just over 18 months but was brought to a close due to disappointing sales figures, most likely a result of the economic downturn. Plans to open Megastores across Europe as well as China have also been shelved. It's a real shame that so many people will be affected by this withdrawal from the UK but it's encouraging to see that they will be re-deployed where possible. On a positive note it would be safe to assume that when the 11 stores close at the end of the year there will be plenty of bargains to be had...



It's over a week since DC Universe Online went free-to-play but there's been some encouraging news for Sony Online Entertainment. SOE president John Smedley tweeted recently that the in game population numbers for the game have risen by 1000% compared to pre free-to-play figures. Gamers are always fond of a bargain, and free is as good a deal as you can get for a game that originally cost £40 plus a yearly subscription to play. Friend of the show Darragh O'Connor downloaded the PS3 version last night while I myself will be shortly. I'll be giving my thoughts on the F2P version of the game during episode 14 of the Killer Keyboard podcast next week.



Rockstar's Dan Houser certainly isn't backwards in coming forwards with his thoughts on the 3D revolution that's sweeping the Movie and Video games scene. In an interview with Variety magazine he said -

"I don't think anyone has solved the riddle of how you make 3D an integral part of the gaming experience,"

While this certainly doesn't mean he's not a fan of 3D, it does indicate that perhaps Max Payne 3 and GTA V might not be too heavily dedicated to the pursuit of 3D gaming perfection. In my mind that's not a bad thing either. I've yet to see a game use 3D in a way that adds to the gaming experience in a way that couldn't be achieved using a two dimensional display. Sure, Super Mario 3D comes close with it's "giant coin" puzzles, but echochrome proved that perspective bending puzzles are just as easy to achieve without the use of a 3D display.



There's something gloriously original about Takashi Miike's films. Ichi the Killer and 13 Assassins are two of my favourite films, each is very different from the other but the direction and camera work in each is spot on. This being the case, when i heard that he was behind the movie adaptation of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney i was interested to see what he'd do with it. The trailer hit Youtube recently, and even though my Japanese is just south of atrocious I could still see that it's going to be a well made movie that is extremely faithful to the source material. If you don't believe me just check out the hair and wardrobe in the trailer below..






By now you've probably heard about a promising little game that's due out soon, it's got Dragons and swords and lots of fighting in it and is apparently part of something called the Elder Scrolls series. No, it's not ringing many bells with me either...

Well if there's anyone reading this that knows what the hell this game is about, this news is for you. First up, Skyrim will receive a patch on day one that "fixes some minor stability and quest progression issues," this patch will be downloaded automatically the first time you play the game and should make the experience that little bit smoother.

Also in the news this week, Skyrim Director Todd Howard has told Wired that the game will have an unending list of quests to take part in. The "Radiant quest system" allows for random generation of quests in-game for each of the guilds, while also generating random NPC quests for you as well. So that's great news for anyone that gets through the main storyline in this years game, although you do wonder how long it will be before you get bored of "take this bag of herbs to my brother on the other side of the bandit infested woodland" or "my cart is broken, could you fetch me a fixing pin from the blacksmith?". Oh and while we're talking about Todd Howard, here's something that he told Norwegian publication Gamer.no.

"There is an unlimited number of dragons"

Is that enough to get those juices flowing a little more freely? Killing one Dragon is great and all, but killing a dozen more is better don't you think? Well done Bethesda.



An inductee to my personal gaming hall of fame is up for sale on GOG.com right now for only $6 (£4 approx.) Quantic Dream's classic title "Fahrenheit", or "Indigo Prophecy" as it is better known in the US, is one of my favourite PS2 titles of all time and served as a proving ground for many of the control and story telling techniques eventually used in Heavy Rain on PS3. The game currently on sale at GOG.com is the uncut European version, meaning that, for the first time, our American cousins can have simulated sex with a polygonal woman while Theory of a Deadman plays softly in the background. It doesn't get any better than this.



Time for my free download of the week, which this time is actually a full blown game. I haven't played this game yet, but it's getting my recommendation purely because it has, quite possibly, the greatest name in Video Games history.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this weeks Free download of the week is
Stealth Bastard: Tactical Espionage Arsehole. It's completely free to download and includes a level editor to boot. You can thank me later...



There's been more rumours this week regarding the next XBox console. For ease of reference i'll list them by source.

MS Nerd blog

-Console is codenamed XBox Loop
-XBox Loop will run on a modified version of Windows 9 and use ARM architecture
-Hardware will include a "main processor" which is supported by dedicated cores for graphics, audio, AI, physics etc
-New console will be Cheaper and Smaller than 360

Paul Thurott - TWiT

-Holiday 2012 release
-Microsoft will "would almost have to announce this [the new console] at CES"
-Console will use the same Metro UI design as Windows Phone 7
-Next XBox will feature Embedded Silverlight
-Expect integration with Windows Phone and Windows 8

The code name certainly makes a lot of sense, Loop fits with the whole 360 degree philosophy and brings to mind the idea of coming full circle. Of course that's reportedly only a code name, the same as Natal was for Kinect, so the real name is probably some horrible title with a K or a Z in place of the C's and S's. There have been multiple predictions of release dates, safe to say it will be sometime during 2012-2014. Integration with Windows is a must, especially with Windows phone being on the market from the beginning of the console life cycle. If the Console is to be more powerful than the last then it makes sense to have dedicated cores for each function, but chip technology moves so quickly that it's hard to get a real feel for what direction they'll take.

Ah, hell. Let's just wait for CES in January and see if they announce something...



Finally, it's time for the UK top ten games on all platforms for the week ending November 5th

1.Battlefield 3
2.Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
3.FIFA 12
4.Batman: Arkham City
5.Just Dance 3
6.Football Manager 2012
7.Forza Motorsport 4
8.Zumba Fitness
9.Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
10.Sonic Generations

Battlefield and FIFA 12 are non movers at numbers 1 and 3 respectively while Uncharted 3 makes it's chart début at number 2. It's a solid showing from the latest Nathan Drake game although Naughty Dog must be disappointed not to have claimed top spot for themselves, but with sales that are over 1/3 better than Uncharted 2 at the same point there's no shame in being second. Batman loses 2 places as does Football manager, and then there's Zumba Fitness. Again...

I had hoped that in a month with so many great games on sale, that Zumba might just have slipped outside of the top ten, but that dream has yet to become a reality.

There's always next week...

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Ace Combat : Assault Horizon - Review

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, available on both PS3 and XBox 360, marks something of a departure for Namco.

Ace Combat is a franchise that has spanned three generations of consoles over sixteen years, not to mention the several iterations of the game on mobile devices including the iPhone, PSP and GBA. In all that time the console franchise has always been set in a fictional world that, although mirroring real world politics, remained somehow alien to us. The new game, however, attempts to please it's devotees while attracting a new generation of Ace's from the Modern Warfare/Battlefield market, with diversified gameplay and a real world setting.

Unlike the Belkan War, or the territorial disputes of the Usean continent, this instalment of the franchise is initially set in Africa and later visits locations such as Washington DC, Miami, Dubai and Moscow. Each location is rendered in the highest detail of any Ace Combat game, including a great number of three dimensional buildings in city settings, something that has until now been a weakness of the series.

Dubai is represented in brilliant detail

The renditions of Moscow and Dubai in particular are stunning, you instantly recognise where you are, and when looking at the ground below you really feel like you're above a real city, not just a glorified high quality Google map. The music also helps to set the mood, each location accompanied by music that really manages to bring it to life. Anyone who buys the special edition will get a copy of the soundtrack on CD, it's an excellent selection of tunes and well worth hunting down the special edition for. Less worthwhile however is the note book that accompanies the special edition. The box claims that it's a signed notebook, but quickly it becomes apparent that the "signatures" have been printed on. I am disappoint Namco!

Gameplay when flying a jet is largely unchanged from previous Ace Combat games, with the exception of the new DFM (Dog Fight Mode) system. DFM makes taking down your enemy a much more visceral experience than previous games have managed, in essence it puts the plane in auto pilot mode, allowing you to focus on shooting down your rival Ace at close quarters.

When you close in on an enemy fighter to a range of approximately 700 feet, a green ring surrounds your opposite number, indicating that you can engage DFM with just a click of your L1 (LB) and R1 (RB) buttons. After that he'll try to shake you off while you train your reticule on him in an attempt to deliver a well placed homing missile or volley of bullets.

Gameplay now includes Helicopter missions, among others

In a further attempt to diversify the game and attract new gamers, Namco have added several new types of gameplay to what was once an exclusively jet based experience. You'll take the part of a door gunner on an American Helicopter, defending your whirlybird from roof based rocket launcher attacks, You can man the weapons on a gunship, protecting and supporting a group of soldiers as they infiltrate an enemy stronghold in the mountains. You'll fly an Apache through the streets of Moscow and you'll even take charge of the Bomb bay doors on a vital bombing run in enemy territory.

These missions add a lot of diversity to the game and make a nice change of pace from the usual deluge of dogfights and bombing runs, but fail to hide the faults that plague the game.

The game feels very short. Two days playing the campaign was enough to complete it from beginning to end, and with the game woefully short of replay value there's very little left to keep you interested or playing. In fact unless you want to see your plane in a different colour there's no reason to replay the campaign. The online is solid enough but once everyone has moved onto MW3 or Battlefield 3 it will most likely be a graveyard.

Gameplay feels confused when moving from Gunship to door gunner, since the control stick inversion settings are shared between the two. I personally preferred to have inversion on when using the helicopter Gatling gun, while it felt more natural to have it off when I was operating the gunship. Admittedly these are personal preference issues and they were quickly sorted by entering the pause menu, but it would have been nice to have seperate settings for two very different areas of gameplay.

Namco have made a big thing about the fact that New York Times best selling author Jim DeFelice wrote the screenplay for Assault Horizon, and while his attention to detail shines through when dealing with the nuts and bolts of Military life, the Plot is unimaginative, stale and transparent at best. Plot twists are given as much gravitas as the opening of an envelope, while the fact that it's yet another Military Coup at the heart of everything makes me wonder if they should have just written the plot themselves and saved some money.

It very much feels like the length of the game hurt the story development, almost as soon as it got going it was all over again. The main Antagonist of the game, Colonel Markov, could have been a much more complex and sympathetic character if his motivation was explored properly. Instead we got one cut scene that not only served to show us his motivation but also made a big reveal about another character. It completely took away any emotional response that the viewer could have had by making us choose between two different emotional responses at the same time. One thing at a time Namco, please.

Affirmative action in the military, a must for any NYT best selling author...

I found it difficult to care about characters who had little to no back story and who were at best stereotypical Top Gun style Jocks. It feels like DeFelice was under orders to represent every group in his treatment, we have Hispanic, Female and African American Characters while The cover star, Lt. Colonel Bishop, is once again a White Male. We play as all of these characters throughout the game, but it only ever feels like we get Bishops story. There is zero development of any characters outside of the Lt. Colonel, and from a series that made me care as much as i did about the death of Chopper in Ace Combat 5, that's a sad thing indeed...





Conclusion


While the story is not the most original and the characters are less than two dimensional, Assault Horizon is at heart an excellent Fighter Pilot game. Graphically the Ace Combat series has never looked better, while the shift to a real world setting might tempt some of the Modern Warfare crowd to at least give it a go. Dog Fight Mode has made the game much more action orientated without taking away from it's roots. The addition of Helicopters, Gunships and Bombers has given the game more diversity but the length of the game is a real problem. This is a great game to rent, but with little more than a couple of days worth of gameplay and no replay value of note it's not really the sort of game that you'd purchase for the long term.

GTA V - Trailer reveal

Rockstar confirmed what many of us had suspected from the off today, as the first trailer for GTA V was released on the official Rockstar games website. You can watch the video by clicking on the link below.

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/19461/grand-theft-auto-v-trailer.html

Early indications are that you might possibly play as an older and wiser Tommy Vercetti, last seen in GTA:Vice City. It would certainly be nice to re-visit the character but it would mark the first time that Rockstar reused a playable main character, and this little fact leaves me wondering if he'll be the main playable character, or even if he'll be playable at all. The voice over mentions children so that might be a possible avenue for the game to explore.

Be sure to check out the next edition of the Killer Keyboard Podcast when we'll discuss the trailer in more detail and at least one of us will come up with a ridiculous theory...