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.

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.