Adventure, Role-Playing and Gun Towers.

Abandoned Blogs are soooo very 2009. In preparation for the new year, here goes a new revitalized Blogging procedure. Out with perfectionism and procrastination. In with concise and entertaining (fingers crossed) gaming commentary. On with the show.

Im surrounded by epic masterpieces of gaming lately. After purchasing a PS3, Drake's Fortune has me living the life of a cavalier adventurer. What a great game it is. A narrative that is actually interesting, not just there to service a game mechanic. Characters that I..wait for it...actually have an interest in! If games start servicing good story, we'll finally have the interactive story medium that games have long promised us...but have not yet delievered. One too many efforts on par with Drake's Fortune, could see Hollywood toppled as the premier entertainment producer.

Great Story + Great Graphics = Good Times

Sitting alongside Drake in my current gaming repertoire is Bioware's epic, Role Playing behomoth Dragon Age - Origins. Early days at this point, and thus far it seems to have the checklist of modern fantasy games. Big guys in armour, sternly preparing to defend the kingdom from cataclysmic evil. In case gamers didn't realise how important and 'hardcore' their mission is in the game, Bioware have covered everything with layers of blood splashes. Even when wandering about town, my characters seem to be speckled with blood from previous battles. It seems a bit silly at times, but then again fighting endless abominations from the pits of hell is not a hygenic business.

Smaug Mk II ?

My third pillar of gaming at the moment takes the form of an unsettling addiction to Tower Defense games. For the unitiated amongst you, Tower Defense games cater to the control freak in your soul. Build Defensive Towers, and defeat hordes of bad guys that assualt your position. Simple gameplay mechanic, yet horrifically compulsive. Defense Grid is my poison of choice. If you feel the need to line up your salt and pepper shakers 'just right' at dinner time, steer well clear of this gaming genre if you still harbour ambitions of sleep in your life.

I can stop anytime I want to...

Halo 3: ODST - No tentacles please.

I've been playing Halo 3 : ODST of late, and its undoubtedly a fun experience. Whilst the Master Chief is off on annual leave, the playstyle of '30 seconds of fun..repeated' is intact.

My fellow PC gamers tend to treat Halo as an unwelcome guest in the hallowed halls of the first person shooter genre. Firstly, there is not a keyboard and mouse in sight. PC gamers are notoriously protective of their fine-tuned control system. Secondly and arguably more important, is that the Halo franchise's popularity took the crown away from the PC as the sole domain of the 'hardcore' shooter genre. Console shooters have the whiff of the 'everyday- joe' invading the supreme geek realm.

For my part, the original Halo grabbed me big-time. The setting, the characters and the 'feel' of the game sat alongside my PC gaming sensibilities surprisingly well. Truth be told, PC shooters (before Half-Life) were never about characters or narrative. It was always about maximum carnage courtesy of madskills and a de-fluffed mouseball (now thats oldschool). Halo introduced something different, and that was welcomed.

I played Halo 1 repeatedly. Whilst I never cracked legendary difficulty, normal and heroic got an extreme workout. I recall lining up for the midnight release of Halo 2. That's when proceedings took a sour turn. Halo 1's exceptional setting of adventure and discovery, gave way to some bizarre half-baked story with a giant tentacle monster rabbiting on about philosophy. The narrative was all over the place. Instead of trying to escape a mysterious doomed deep space installation, Master Chief was errand boy for a plot I still cant be bothered to recall. Oh and ending a game on a cliff-hanger when the next episode is years away. That reeks of 'marketing device' invading game design.

Halo2's misfire saw me casually picking up the 3rd installment, long after its release. I really would have settled for a crashed spacecraft and another 'escape' adventure. Instead it was more characters blabbing about this and that. Something about a Covenant rebellion, lost artifacts - all a bit uninteresting. And, oh the giant tentacle monster was back. This time he had ambition as well as philosophy. Calamari cannot be smart. Ever.

Still the online multiplayer was a treat, and the competition was and still is fierce. The mouse and keyboard might be the most accurate virtual combat system from an ergonomic point of view, but goodness me these halo guys can muscle a controller with pinpoint precision. The multiplayer component of Halo 3 is so engaging, its only drawback is highlighting the deeply un-awesomeness of the single player campaign.

Thats the concern I had with ODST. Was this going to be another multiplayer centric Halo title? So far, things are looking good. Interesting characters, a sense of adventure and discovery, and probably one of the most atmospheric gaming soundtracks in recent memory. And not a philosophizing tentacle in sight. Sweet relief indeed.

Thanks Bungie, from one old-timer Halo fan.

Loading screens. How I loathe thee.

World of Warcraft has once again promoted itself as my 'full-time' game of choice of late. I've tried other massively online games, as I enjoy the genre immensely. Correction, I have a perception that I enjoy the genre immensely. Truth be told, most new MMO's these days hold my attention for one or two weeks before crashing headlong into the categorization that all game designers hold in high dread - 'Meh'.

Since my posts of late have been lacking enough fastidious fussiness and aggravation, here goes my breakdown of what's wrong with the current batch of MMOs.

Everquest 2 -Its not unreasonable to assume Sony had plans of building upon the success of the original Everquest. Those ambitions quickly vaporized, as an aura of 'fail' quickly surrounded EQ2. A graphics system that required Skynet's younger cousin to run in addition to lack of content, quickly had gamer's feeling nostalgia over EQ2's predecessor.

Lord of the Rings Online - With the 'one Intellectual Property to rule them all', LOTRO should have raised above its status as moderate success (ie it hasn't been shut down yet). More than one gamer has commented "I just cant get into this game..and I don't know why". Ive suffered the same syndrome, only to have my wife solve the mystery one fateful day. She looked over my shoulder...

"Why bother playing, its like World of Warcraft except...boring".

And that's the truth of it. Whilst the zones are beautiful, they lack variety especially in the long haul 1-20 level zones. Endless areas of trees, hills and thousands of bloody bears (seriously this game could be called Bear-World). Reading and watching Tolkien seems more entertaining that playing Tolkien.

Age of Conan - The train-wreck of a launch has been well documented. Take note game designers. Do not list features on the back of the box, that are not in the game. It raises an aura of smoke and mirrors from the outset. AOC arrived with big promises, but fell on its face due to technical hitches and a 'poof and its gone' endgame. The one deal breaker for me was the lack of consistent world design. Instead of traversing my character in an expansive fantasy land, I always felt as though I was stuck on a small path between lots of pretty backdrops. Its a toss up whether Hyboria is populated more by monsters or loading screens.

Warhammer Online - Arguably one of the best marketed MMO's of all time. The developers were all over the gaming press for months promoting the large feature-set, all aimed at the singular focus of skull-bashing Player vs Player combat. Soon after release, the MMO kiss-of-death soon arrived, aka the 'server merge'. Like Age of Conan before it, Warhammer lacks an engaging world. The whole playing environment feels stale, more akin to deathmatch zones strung together.

Ask World of Warcraft critics why its success eludes other games, and you'll hear responses along the lines of its a 'dumbed down' game for the masses. Relegating Warcraft as the McDonald's of gaming completely misses the point. Blizzard struck gold, because they realised what others have not. Players want a tangible connection with their characters and the virtual world they inhabit. They don't want a bunch of levels clumped together, or poorly animated plastic looking avatars equipped with generic looking loot.

I'm really hoping the next generation of Massive Games shift their emphasis back to creating compelling adventures in compelling worlds. Get rid of loading screens, small worlds and bears. I'm hopeful for Aion, but on current word of mouth it seems Champions Online went the 'great characters - bland world' route.

My hopes once again gaze towards Star Wars : The Old Republic...

Grandad - Halo was for noobs.

When I was a young lad in the 1980s, being a gamer meant predominately one thing - isolation. Countless hours on my own staring at a screen exploring dungeons in Ultima or traversing a galaxy-on-a-tape in Elite.

And I loved every minute of it! Problem is that this solo aura of gaming fostered a reputation of gamers as nerds. The labels of 'weird' and 'suspicious' were not far behind. Tags that still hang around today, as evident in media scare reports about gamers fostering all sorts of anti-social behaviors.

That said, today's gamer is a lot less likely to be considered a nerd. Thing have changed considerably. Gaming is more often than not a social event played over any amount of numerous gaming networks. Consoles have become a near ubiquitous home entertainment device, sitting comfortably in the center of the living room. And everybody seems to be playing various casual puzzler games on mobile devices. And I for one salute South Korea for recognising the 'mad skillz' of Starcraft players, elevating elite players to national celebrities. Football needs a rest...seriously.



Still video gaming, even with its financial juggernaut status does not have the mainstream acceptance of movies and TV. Accusing fingers still point at games, murmuring the words "corrupter of children" , "dangerous", "waste of time" etc. And every time a serial killer pops up, a hint at a behavioral link between his games collection is not too far off. Whilst ignoring his collection of TV crime forensic shows DVD's lurking in his basement. Cultural bias is a pick and choose game.

Why is this so? It could be a generational thing. My Generation X still labels game players as "nerds". They play games, but feel guilty about it. The current young generation have grown up with Sony's Playstation brand marketing games as cool. For them, gaming is a past-time on equal status with any other leisure activity.

And of course, Gaming is paying its dues as a new technology. Radio, TV and even print have all suffered the glare of suspicion when first introduced. TV would kill movies, VCR's would kill movies. Cinema would stop people going to the theater, Ok maybe that one has a point.

So a new generation of media operators, and gaming losing the 'new' label means a cultural green light? Probably not. The biggest problem gaming has, is also its greatest advantage. Technological advancements. Graphics and the way we interact with our games is advancing at a hyper-pace. Its no great jump to think we'll be at photo-realism in graphics within 10 years. We're already getting 'sorta' close with titles like Crysis. And then there are input technologies such as the Wii, Ps3's 'magic wand' and the 360's Natal.

Put all of those together and soon enough we'll be able to explore and interact with any photo-realistic environment we wish to, complete with incredible levels of immerson. Will gamers of today, those raised in the confines of hand controllers and stylized graphics, be suspicious when their kids are playing Call of Duty 25 aka the 'virtual reality' edition? I would put money on it.

Sheez even me Mr geeky Dad will reel in horror when my grand-kids jack into the Matrix...for..like...real :)

Blizzcon. The life and times of PC gaming.

Blizzcon has come and gone. If you were lucky enough to attend, I stand envious of your geek status! My inner geek needs to one day cosplay as a Gnome, but alas this was not the year for it. I spent the opening hours of Blizzcon, staring excitedly at the screen with multiple Twitter windows open. Reading comments, viewing pics and watching the occasional Youtube video posted. Thanks to the wonders of social media, I was 'almost' there - minus Ozzy Osbourne yelling at me.

All in all, a real spectacle. What is it about Blizzard? Carefully crafted games, attention to detail and an understanding of the 'x factor' of gameplay. These factors have seem them become the gold standard of game developers. And all of this mega-success currently built on the foundations of the PC, a gaming platform we are told is on the wane.

Im a PC gamer, first and foremost. Whilst I enjoy my 360, it is the PC that holds my gaming heart. Being floored the first time I saw Doom. Literally. Serving The Emperor in Tie Fighter. Trying to get the sound working on my "100% sound blaster compatible" card for Syndicate back in the early 90s. Ahh my x86 CPU, it was only you and me back then buddy. Consoles were for kids. We were adults!

But that was then. The present is somewhat different. Retail sales are down, and the PC is becoming the last port of call in relation to 'hot' console releases. The PC needs a gaming rescue package. Here goes...

1. Graphics card marketing hi-jinks. A few years back I was out of gaming for about a year. Upon my return , I set out to buy a new graphics card. What faced me was a bamboozling array of 9500 pro, x750 this and that. It took me a few weeks of solid research to get my head around this 'sub-culture' of graphics card confusion. I had a couple of hundred dollars ready to spend, but marketing got in the way of handing over my cash. Nvidia and Ati need to get back to basics in advertising their products.

2. Abandon Retail. There comes a time in any war, when the loser should just bow out. Its time for PC games publishers to wave the white flag and head to online distribution. The PC games section in the majority of retailers is defined by poor selection and bad placement. This sends the wrong message to new PC owners. Online services such as Steam and Impulse present the truth of PC games, that being good value and incredible diversity.

3. Integrated graphics cards need to die a death. A typical scenario is that people often purchase a PC for 'business and education - not silly games'. That is until Dad sees screen shots of Half Life 2, Mum sees the new Sims and Grandma wants to become a raid leader in World of Warcraft. The problem arises when the new PC's integrated graphics chip suddenly wimps out at the newly installed game demo. Developers and manufacturers need to get together and fix this. Sub-standard gaming PCs shuts out potential gamers from the start.

4. DRM hurts customers. Ive had more than one game that refused to install due to its 'disc copyright system' (aka pain in the backside), not being compatible with my DVD drive. Pirates will be pirates. Most of the time they dont even play the games they steal. Its about the thrill of getting something new, play for 5 minutes and onto the next torrent. PC gaming consumers want to play their games, and DRM just punishes the honest. Banish barriers.

Oh and bring back space flight sims. Ok, its my Blog and this is an indulgence. Where did these games go?!?! Wing Commander, X-Wing, Freespace how I miss thee! (well except escort missions, they are evil).

Blizzcon. Intrigue. Excitement. And the end of the world.

Blizzcon is almost here! This is one of the most important Blizzard fanfests yet. We have Diablo 3 in the pipeline, Starcraft 2 in close orbit and of course the next World of Warcraft expansion. There's enough gaming anticipation in those three titles alone to elevate this Blizzcon to epic event status.

Id like to put myself on the line here and make a stab at what we are going to see. If Im right, a sense of accomplishment complete with pizza and chocolate will be my reward. If I'm wrong, I'll be just another Blogger mouthing off crazy talk.

Diablo 3. More information about how the new Battle. Net is going to affect multiplayer. Since Diablo 3 is still most likely a year away from release, it will probably play 3rd fiddle at the convention. Which may be a good thing as....

The prospect of being hooked on Diablo3 and WOW simultaneously. Forget the Mayan 2012 Armageddon folks, these two games could bring down civilization.

StarCraft 2. The delay was expected, but the ditching of LAN play has left many in the community more than slightly irritated. As with Diablo 3, Blizzard are really going to 'sell' the heights they hope to achieve with the new Battle.Net. The lack of LAN play will be forgotten by the end of the convention.

Cataclysm. Is it Blizzard's mysterious new MMO? Or is it the WOW expansion? Over at Wow.com they are mighty sure of themselves that Cataclysm is the Wow expansion. Not only that, they are claiming with supreme confidence that two new races will be introduced. That being Worgen for the Alliance, and Goblins for the Horde.

Ok Im willing to run with this. WOW's expansion is a dead certainty to arrive next year. New expansions raise the profile of WOW, thereby attracting new players, whilst vitally keeping veteran players coming back for more.

The fly in the ointment, are the two new races being introduced. Here we go, back to level 1...again. I think WOW is at that point, where the vast majority of players have seen the early game content...again...and again...and again. A new skin, aka player race is not enough motivation to grind through Chuck Norris land aka The Barrens again. And don't get me started on Stranglethorn Vale. Even without the ganking on a PVP server, that place is a long haul of stunted growth dinosaurs, invisible panthers and strangely angry pirates.

No, Blizzard will offer an incentive to go back to level 1 again. And what better way to do that, by adjusting the old world content in some sort of facelift, or (drumroll please) Cataclysm! New environments, new angles on familiar territories. The whole player base will happily ditch their epic raids for some sweet leveling once again.

If we end up getting 10 extra levels, plus a new island to play with people are going to be a bit meh. Wow needs a shakeup, and after two 'comfortably expected' expansions, now is the time to shake Azeroth up.

As for Blizzard's in-the-shadows MMO. On the off chance we get an announcement, my money is on some sort of post-apocalyptic scenario. We've already had World of Starcraft officially denied. And another fantasy MMO would just compete with WOW. Post-apocalyptic land offers a nice mix of off-beat fantasy with sci-fi elements to allow Blizzard's creative team to go nuts. Come to think of it, the name Cataclysm really sits alongside a post-apocalyptic scenario. Oops might miss that chocolate and pizza after all...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Blizzcon awaits...

Games Shops. The end is nigh.

I often get asked, what is the biggest difference between gaming in the 80s and gaming now. Ok, I never get asked that question. Its just a subject I ponder to myself whilst mowing the lawn.

Better Graphics? Yeah. Maybe.

80s v Now*

The list of advancements from the 'good ol days' and now is endless. Truth be told gaming was not that hot back then, its mostly nostalgia. Nobody is giving up World of Warcraft or Call of Duty for Q-Bert on the ColecoVision. Nobody.

But I digress. As I type this, my Xbox 360 is downloading part 2 of the 'New User Experience'. Its basically a nip and tuck of an update, except for the ability to purchase full retail games online and digitally download them. This is the definition of the biggest change since gaming in the 80s. Our method of consuming games is undergoing a revolution. As a by-product, the local games shop is going bye-bye.

There is background to this move away from physical stores. The biggest sore-point for game publishers towards their retail 'partners' is the ever-growing 2nd hand market. Its no secret that games publishers detest the trade/buy scheme being advertised from every in-store banner. It cuts them out of a revenue stream, a stream that games retailers are happy to shower themselves in. Then we add in to the mix packaging and distribution costs. The icing on the cake are the retail price-wars that lower consumer expectations of how much games should cost. Publishers would love an exit-stage left from the world of bricks and mortar retailing, and thanks to approaching universality of broadband amongst gamers....its coming.

Ok, tumble weeds crossing your local games retailer is not going to happen tomorrow. The sign-posts are clear though. Sony is tipping their toe into the digital only pond with the PSP GO. Microsoft has made their intentions clear with this latest 360 Dashboard update. And the PC? Goodness me, Steam is the PC gamer's first stop these days. Ask any games retailer about PC sales, and you'll get a frown and a finger pointing to the dark and dusty back shelf. Where is it all heading? Look for the PS4 and the Xbox 720 to have huge hard disks and not an optical drive in sight.

Is this good or bad for we gamers? Buying any game we want, anytime we want whilst eating pizza in our underwear is obviously a positive evolution of human society. That angle has win all over it. There are though problems too long to discuss here, in regards to centralized pricing (ie games purchased from a single source = expensive) and the murky issues of digital ownership. For me though, it will be the loss of the local games store.

Now I know these are not what they used to be. Large chain stores were a dubious replacement of the old-school indie games shop, complete with 'game expert' guy. Chain stores are pressure-cooker environments filled with machine gun marketing techniques and sales staff that seem trained to annoy. Well that's the stereotype anyway. My local chain store is staffed with friendly, no-pressure fellow gamers. I certainly don't want to see them out of a job, and equally important the local games store is still a real-world social contact for gamers. If you haven't lined up for a midnight release of a World of Warcraft expansion, shame on you. Its an event!

So go down to your nearest games-store, scour the shelves for a special. Warn a parent that their teenage son really wont like the Wii. Argue with a clerk over the need for an extended disc warranty. The tide is changing, there's probably no stopping it.

*Screenshots sourced from the ET Atari 2600 and Crysis Wikipedia pages.