Reviewin'

I will be occasionally posting reviews and impressions up here, in general they are just my thoughts and opinions. I am not aiming to always keep the tone neutral, there are plenty of professional game sites for that, seek them out.
I also will not always play a game to completion before a review is published, if I know how fun it is I'll say so (I'm often of the mind that if you get a strong start sometimes the end doesn't matter) and if it's that bad I don't need to see all 20 hours to tell you it's bad.
Unlike professional reviews I will add suggestions and point out shortcomings. I'll also taken a leaf from Kotaku and instead of a score provide a yes/no system recommending a game (or not)

Look out for reviews in the near future, I might start with a favorite terrible game.

Stay tuned.

Apologies

Well here is the obligatory apologies follow up… If you didn’t like my choices well tough really.

Half-life as I kicked of this series by saying it’s just never a series that hooked me. Maybe it was the motion sickness but I just personally could not include it.

Warcraft was a bit of contentious one. This was around the first RTS game I ever played and it was awesome, if it was a top 12 list it may just have made it.

I apologise for the games in series that didn’t make it. Diablo could have and would have, as would San Andreas and possibly any Mario game, especially 3, which is the pinnacle of gaming, in my opinion of course, but the original as the first game I EVER played I just couldn’t go past.

Zelda, well here’s a shocker I’ve never played a Zelda from start to finish they just never hooked me. I like them enough, now my experience is greatly increased from even 12 months ago but any Zelda would still struggle to make a top 50 let alone my 11.

Final Fantasy not making it as a series may seem somewhat controversial but truth be told I’ve only completed I and XIII and those are hardly worth against those that made it, oh and VII doesn’t hold up very well, deal with it fanboys.

The original Monkey Island I hate that I had to leave this out. As far as I am concerned this is the pinnacle of adventure gaming. As much as I wanted I couldn’t find room for it.

Also Broken Sword 2, in particular from that series was a shame to leave out.

More recent games that failed to make it that may stand the test of time include Borderlands (this really satisfies my loot addiction), Diablo 3 (probably still wouldn’t edge out 2), Crusader Kings 2 (by virtue of satisfying my penchant for open ended games and being a Grand Strategy RPG, oh, and it is the best Game of Thrones game around, if you are willing to download a mod) and LA Noire (As much as I loved this game I don’t think history will judge it very well.  

Well I haven’t made too many excuses here because really I don’t need to justify my decisions, it’s just my preference.

Well that’s my favourite games, some 2,000 words worth over 3 weeks I hope you know a bit more about what I like and what resonates with me which I do believe influences reviews and general opinions on games. What would like to have seen up there? What did I miss? Is my list comparable to your tastes or way out there?

Number 1: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

I had so much internal debate about this particular position. Diablo was only just pipped and well this was a toss up between Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas and Vice City itself. So good are both these games that I almost broke my one game from a series rule.

When it came down to it had to be Vice City. I just did everything right, the soundtrack the look the feel it just too you right to the 80’s. The soundtrack was the strongest of the series, the first game to have a fully licensed soundtrack.

It’s strongest feature was giving you a cast of characters the were quirky, and had real motivations.

Add to this excellent mission variety. Who could forget bombing Cubans with a toy remote control plane? Or distributing fliers for an ‘Adult’ movie via a sea-plane? Or driving around a rock band at high speeds so a bomb dosen’t go off. I know I can’t. It all just felt right. Add to this all the extras, hidden packages, Fire Ambulance, Police, races it goes on and on. There is so much to do pack into those 3 islands.

It felt like you could be a complete manic, and the missions were so diverse that you never got bored. It never became a dash from mission to mission just to be done, like GTA4 was for me.

It added much needed customisation but didn’t make it so overwhelming that there were too many choices, I’m looking at San Andreas in this respect.

The gameplay still holds up quite well today although the graphics have dated, the draw distance is really quite low and textures and buildings popping in are very frequent, which is a bit of a curse of the open world game. Despite this I have no real complaints with the game it’s just so completely awesome.

This is a game I always go back to…in fact it may be time to go back to it now, maybe you should to.

Number 2: Diablo 2

There has always been a soft spot for Blizzard games for me add to that that I have been enamoured with Diablo since I clicked on that first demon. It’s not a sophisticated game that is for sure, click to move and attack, right click to cast a spell. That’s really all there is to it.

Apart from this there is a heavy amount of looting, in fact this is what makes the game so compelling in the first place. Arguably it’s the loot that drives the player not the clicking of the demons and it’s hard not to agree. There is always the temptation that the next great piece of loot is just around the corner, and more often than not something is.

The RPG nature of the game gives you many different skill paths to follow, sure you’ll be doing exactly the same quests over and over the more you lay through it, but how you play the game is different almost every single character you create. There is a great joy in uncovering new skills and finding builds that suit your playstyle.

The graphics at the time we spectacular, although they have aged fairly quickly and look nowhere near as sharp as some other games of that era even.

The cutscenes, although pre-rendered were so excellent you couldn’t help but be drawn in from frame one of the game. The story is fairly basic, you’re chasing the Lord of destruction as he traverses the countryside, taking you to many exotic locations trying to stop his reign of terror.

As you might expect there is a lot to kill maim and destroy as you move from place to place.

This game is one that since its release has constantly drawn me back into it, every couple of years I will pop the game back in the computer and have a go at looting and clicking. For such a simple game, that doesn’t have a particularly strong story to keep pulling me in it is a special game indeed.

Number 3: Knights of the Old Republic

Here’s the obligatory Star Wars game. Truth is it would be a worthy podium finisher, even if it wasn’t part of the Star Wars cannon.

I must admit before KotOR I had barely picked up this style of RPG. In fact I’d barely touched any RPG’s to date and I really only purchased this on the strength of the Star Wars universe itself.

From beginning to end I was blown away. The story is so unbelievably good, the choices you make feel that you are affecting the universe and the events therein. I have played through the game several times and still don’t think I have seen everything it has to offer is testament to the choices and methods you can go about to achieve goals. There is also an open ended nature that allows you to explore in your own order. Admittedly on most of the planets there is only one main goal, although it may take a visit or two to get there, but generally once you have invested in the main quest on a planet you are there for the long haul.

 The story takes you on many different planets and gives you a good feel for the motivations and allegiances different parts of the galaxy have.

To skip how good the story really is, is to ignore the greatest strength of the game. It gives you characters and situations that feel real, motivations feel real (even if they are alien motivations). There has been a lot said about the ‘twist’, it is one of the most awesome turn of events in any game period. The thing is if you are paying complete attention the clues are there, they are just not so easy to spot. It completely changes the way you look at the main character. Although I have to say that the story reaches a point where it asks you are you sure that you want to commit to this path,  allowing to completely reverse the character consequences with the final choice is a bit of a cop out.

Another downside is that your companions do feel a little contrived so there are no holes in your possible, a Jedi of each class, a soldier, a thief, a combat and utility droid but their back stories have been so well fleshed out that the don’t appear superfluous to the game and most importantly fit the universe.

The combat is fairly fast paced and is generally handled manually, by pausing, queuing commands and doing this for each of your party members. Similar to other RPG’s this game is also about acquiring new and better loot, deciding what is better for what characters. It actually doesn’t do all that much new but what it does is outstanding in almost every way and for that it makes my list, and a worthy occupation at that.

Number 4: Civilisation II

I’ll admit that this game was got grudgingly. It was a birthday present and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was playing Age of Empires. That was my personal choice too. So imagine the disappointment at getting something that even for its time was uglier (I’m not sure if it really was uglier but I sure do remember thinking that it looked bad the first time I booted it up), seemingly clunkier and not as action packed. I can even recall only booting it up the first time to please my parents and assure them that they hadn’t wasted money on me.

Yeah, It's not so pretty now

Despite my plans I was hooked within the first 10 minutes and played it and played it and then played it some more. The cliché ‘just one more turn’ really is quite apt here. There was many a night where I would be sorting out an epic counter attack, storming cities, expanding my empire and building an economic powerhouse, spreading democracy or brining more comrades into the fold and often it would be midnight before I even knew what was

In the early days there was the temptation to set and forget, fix tax rates and science rates then hope, but the real joy comes with managing every last little detail. It’s admittedly not for everyone but it has me hooked the fact that no two games are strategically the same very much appeals to my love of open ended games (if you haven’t already detected a theme here).

Again, there have been better, more in-depth, and some may say more definitive versions, Civ IV immediately comes to mind. It doesn’t change the impact that Civ II ha on me. It wasn’t pretty, but it was so darn addictive and got me hooked so readily. It will always hold a special place for me.

Number 5: Super Mario Bros

This is where it really all began I remember Christmas 1990 (or was it 89?) and unboxing the NES, I was wrapped. I had never played so much as a game, let alone owned a console or a PC.

Of course the console came packaged with the Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt Combo. Admittedly the sway of the light gun was initially too strong to resist and a fair amount of time initially was spent shooting ducks (often at point blank range).

Once the novelty wore off, there was Super Mario Bros in all its glory.

1990. NEVER Forget.

It is the epitome of easy to learn hard to master. The game is simple D-pad to move, one button to jump, one button to use fireballs and sprint. That’s it.  The challenge comes in the level design. All of which is outstanding and does a great job of changing things up.

It also has the knack of being brutally difficult as the levels progress and the opportunities for extra lives are fairly limited, so often you will find yourself having only 3 or 4 chances at completing a single level.

I am slightly ashamed to say that despite my best efforts I am yet to get completely through this game. Like most platformers my patientce defeats me as much as the game. It has always had a knack of defeating me, although of late I have picked it up again and have breezed through the first few levels. So there is hope yet.

Yes it isn’t the only platformer out there, it may not be as pretty as the third iteration but it was the original and without it, I probably may have never got into gaming. Sure many of the Mario Games out there have improved on the formula and advanced the platforming genre more but for its influence on me and the gaming industry alone I really can’t go past the original.

Number 6: Star Control 3

This was the first Windows based game that really stuck in my mind. It was a very hybrid game, you were free to zoom around the galaxy as you saw fit colonizing worlds, exploiting the worlds for resources and fuel to power your ship, not only this but it had an awesome story that was told by fully animated conversations between you and alien races. Add to this there was a space combat component that you could take control of yourself or opt to have the CPU play for you.

These space battles were, in my opinion, quite often some of the weaker sequences of this game. There was often times where the AI would take in a faster ship than yours and absolutely refuse to engage, basically creating a never ending cycle. Some of the dialogue was hilarious and there were some truly wacky alien species. While the FMV does feel a bit dated, it is actually quite well done and still holds up as one of the better examples of the use of FMV. The game does an excellent job of giving you the feel for a galaxy on the edge of war, each race having their distrust of each other and their motivations.

FMV that was passable at least, more than you can say about most of the FMV of the era

The game was really quite open ended, in that often you could spend hours colonizing, harvesting and never actually advance the story.

There were a few flaws though often to advance the story there was not a very clear direction, and even if you do have proper direction, searching for the system among the hundred or so systems could be a major feat.

There was also a possibility that you could run out of fuel and be stranded for literally an hour or two waiting for a colony to build a fuel depot, then provide you with fuel as you could guide colonies to build based on preferences but you had no direct input into the management of each individual colony.

Base building and space ships. what's not to love?

There was also the problem that you could spend several hours colonizing planets with a certain species, only to have them get shitty at you and leave the alliance, making your efforts for naught.

Despite these issues, it hooked me. I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for game that have a more open ended nature (if you hadn’t already guessed). At that time this was the first game that I had played that was open to do as you pleased but still incorporated a strong story. I’d highly recommend anyone to grab a copy of this, if you can still find it (*cough* GOG.com *cough*).

Number 8: Donkey Kong Country

To be fair anyone of the DKC series could have made this list, and in fact this game makes my list without ever actually owning it.

There was something magical about going to my friends place and popping in Donkey Kong Country. There was the platforming, which didn’t play to much differently from anything of the era but…this is a big but too…

Donkey Kong Country looked so damn good…I can’t explain it fully but at the time this sticks out in my mind as being one of the most gorgeous looking games I had played. The 3D backdrops were gorgeous and all the character models were spectacular, the enemies varied, as were the locales and stages you played, hurtling through the mines in cart, dodging obstacles was insanely difficult, yet strangely compelling.

To me this felt like a showcase of what the SNES was capable of, it also was one of the first time platformers acknowledged that they are difficult and as such threw extra lives at you, a real god send, in all honesty.

It was a welcome change, but that didn’t change the difficulty there were most certainly controller crushing moments. The afore mentioned cart level was one…essentially you had to have cat like reflexes to succeed, or a good memory (both in actuality) and then time what points your jumps needed to be made.

There were heaps of secrets and additional helps available to you. The use of various animals that were close to invincible was a great addition. They could make the various levels much more of a breeze, and whenever I saw the crate…my heart skipped with joy a little.

Playing in coop was a bit of a frustrating enterprise, it often came with an admission that they couldn’t do this part so take over, then a bit of a shove when both Donkey and Diddy fell into a crevice. Sure it wasn’t a perfect system but it was a hell of a lot of fun trying to clear the game with friends.

I regret not owning this game at the time, although I have since brought the whole trilogy on the Wii’s virtual console…so much nostalgia value, and a game that holds up so well today.

Number 7: Read Dead Redemption

Another day (or two, or 3) and another Rockstar game, although a much more recent example in Red Dead Redemption.

After the disappointment that was Grand Theft Auto IV and the meh-fest that was Read Dead Revolver (a game I’ve spent a total of around 15 minutes playing, admitedly) I must say that I wasn’t expecting much at all from Red Dead at all. This game could almost make it into my list on its ending alone, so for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet:

a)      What’s taken so long? and;

b)     Stop reading and go do that

John Marston is easily the best protagonist in a Rockstar game by a long shot, his highs are quite literally your highs, and his lows, well you get the picture.

Part of that comes from the fact that you do feel for him, despite the whining protagonists in GTA’s, especially IV and SA, you feel that John really does just want to get out of the situation, and it’s external forces keeping him from settling, whereas the other two seem to be the catalysts for their situation.

As you would expect the game plays quite a bit like a GTA game, although there have been additions of a lasso, which can be used to tame horses and rope adversaries from their mounts and the ‘dead eye’ system which slows down time and allows you to unload whole magazines into multiple enemies.
The fact is this is a stunningly beautiful and despite the bugs the game is prone to, it is a world that just feels alive, and above all authentic.

It may be bleak, but it is beautiful

This was the first game to really show me how good game storytelling could be, not pulpy but a story that could sit up with other mediums, held back (only minimally, mind) by the fact that it is a game. For that achievement alone it deserves to be in this list, it should be on yours, too.

Number 9: Sim City

If there was one game that could be attributed in getting me into gaming it would be this one or rather a combination of this and Sim City 2000. The original Sim City was a flawed masterpiece; I don’t deny it wasn’t perfect.

I could and often did build a city that relied on rail alone. The maps tended to be extremely small, not big enough to really make you feel you had built and managed a bustling metropolis. The placing of buildings was horribly rigid, with the blocks of residential, commercial and industrial.

It wasn't the prettiest, but it was a first love so I'll forgive it.

It also occurred to me that the game was not designed for someone who has no knowledge of economics and city budgeting (In my defence I was 10 years old). I would often blow through my starting budget within the first 12 months of my tenure. For this very reason Sim City gave rise to my love of cheats in my earlier gaming days.

There wasn’t much more satisfying than building a big town to have an earthquake destroy it almost completely and then trying to rebuild from scratch.

I probably missed a lot by never making a profitable city, but this type of game that really doesn’t have a goal, the game is what you make of it. My friends and I often just took turns trying to build the biggest and most populous city we could, or destroying their city and watch the exodus.

There is no denying that there have been better Sim Cities released, the pinnacle probably at Sim City 2000, with the introduction of mass transit and border connections. For its impact on my life I really can’t go past the original Sim City.

Number 10: Bully

Ahh yes Bully, the game that’s content was nowhere near as bad as the name suggests. In fact the Classification Board here in Australia were so worried about the name that it was originally sold as Canis Canem Edit here, which was almost bound to make the game fail sales wise, but I digress.

What can I say about Bully? GTA with out the guns? Possibly, but that’s not doing this game justice either. Sure it did leech off of the GTA model but it stood unto itself with charming characters and at times all too recognizable ones. Add to this a hilarious story, terrific voice acting and an interesting location, nothing like this had really been done before.

Essentially this was a crime and punishment game like GTA, but the school and adjacent town was a joy to run around and explore. It would be hard to call this a technically proficient game (most open world games have grander ambitions than than technology allows, and this is no exception), it is hard to call a last-gen GTA game technically proficient, but it is so much fun, whether you are biking around, or running all over town there was so much to see and do.

As Jimmy Bullard you were sent to boarding school out of convenience for your parents, and you quickly become an outcast, from all of the regular cliques. The game has you running from bullies, needing to make classes, which gives you perks and benefits in various areas. You even get to try and woo the female classmates.

I originally brought this game simply based off the developer. I was happy that I wasn’t to be disappointed, it is a rare gem and seemingly not as fondly remembered as many other Rockstar games.

Sure it had its issues, it was more frustrating on missing class than it needed to be, there was little incentive to skip them and as bed time was enforced by prefects and police alike, it often gave a very small window to dash between missions. In the scheme of thing it isn’t that big a deal, but it did make it more restrictive, and therefore more annoying, than the GTA games.

This game will always hold fond memories as I got it just as I was finishing school, so there were a lot of school tropes that could be contrasted between this game and my life at that time (even if the game version was highly exaggerated). It wasn’t a perfect game, especially in comparison to what Rockstar has achieved before and since this game but it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Number 11: Mortal Kombat 3

There is little denying that MK3 was for a time my favourite game. I was young impressionable and this satisfied my lust for gore at that age. Sure, it wasn’t the most complex fighter, but I hadn’t played them and I sure as hell didn’t care either. Many hours were spent with my friends, pulling off fatalities, friendships or just unlocking Shao Khan and laying the beatdown on my friends (if I got to his portrait on the select screen first).

The thing that really got me was that it was really simple to get into, you could win by button mashing but there was some depth to it a button masher was generally no match for a more skilled opponent the combo system was well implemented, even if I was more concerned with the flashy special moves. The character roster was close perfect with many characters to choose (some may argue too many) from and none of them played exactly the same as the other (Sektor and Cyrax came very close).

Of course I also have to mention the controller crushing moments of the Arcade mode. As is the tradition of fighters both Montaro and Shao Khan were exceptionally cheap with (what seemed like) unblockable extremely overpowered attacks. It’s almost a wonder that the SNES controller wasn’t crushed with frustration.

Unsurprisingly this was the game that brought to the fore the classification debate for Australia, prior to this games were a largely unregulated medium. To many people’s dismay the problem with classification has only just been resolved and it remains to be seen if it has arrived at a satisfactory outcome for all, but as always I digress (perhaps a topic for some other time).

Yep, It sure Could be bloody

This was also the last MK before the series tried to move on and become a 3D fighter. Unfortunately MK has started to fall by the wayside, possibly with the decline of the arcade. The newest iterations still have their moments but ultimately it has lost its lustre that made MK3 one of the great fighting games. Make no mistake this was a great and above all fun fighter.

As an aside, I highly recommend seeking out the most recent Mortal Kombat reboot as it returns to MK3 form, going back to its 2D roots.

THE Countdown

I’ve been pretty loath to do countdown blogs, generally, as I think they are essentially a bit of a time waster but I’ve decided that I should lay down my top 11 games  ever so readers can get an idea of where my gaming roots are from and it seems like a topic that comes up on fairly regularly. Why eleven you ask? Well gotta do something to be different.

I don’t claim to have played every game but these are the games I have played and loved, the games that have impacted me and these are my own choices, no correspondence will be entered into.

I have tried to limit myself to one game from each series, as it would be a little bland if my top 4 games were all Grand Theft Auto games (they wouldn’t have been but just an example).

First I apologise to Half-Life fans I can guarantee neither in the series will make the list. The first one gave me motion sickness and I was just never interested enough in the second one (despite owning the Orange Box).

There have been so many games in my time that as much as I want to include them I just can’t. There may even be a follow up with the many apologies that I have to give for omitting games, further than the Half-Life series.

I will attempt to give a short review of each along with a brief history on how it affected me or why I love the game so much but these are not ‘true’ reviews as such.

Unlike a lot of my other blog posts I will try and keep this list bloat free…but best laid plans and all that.

Stay tuned for more soon.

Nintendo in trouble, and why the next generation cannot save them

There’s no denying it, Nintendo is struggling. Although posting a loss for the first time would hardly seem like a company on the slide there are more issues at work here than meets the eye. Please note this is an analysis from someone who loves games, and reads news both gaming and business and world related, it is not intended as an insider view at all and it certainly is based upon my assumptions and observations, so take them as you will.

This ‘next’ gen of Nintendo’s is built soely on gimmicks, namely the obvious 3D capability of the 3DS and the slightly less obvious tablet controller of the WiiU. Both of these smack of desperation in the concept, look at the 3DS and it’s announcement at the peak of the 3D fad, everything was in 3D, movies, games, TV all being marketed as this massive selling point and for a time it was and I must admit that I was excited for the glassesless  3D tech and yes it works as advertised does it make for a more compelling gaming experience? I’d answer no. Every game I’ve played on the 3DS the feeling of depth sure has been there but not one has needed it, you could have chucked any of Kid Icarus or Tales of the Abyss onto the DS and they still would have been successful (maybe a revision that included the circle pad). It seemed like Nintendo was shouting, ‘hey guys you like 3D, right?’ 

Truth was we saw it as a novelty, nice in patches but we still not how we want to consume a majority of the content. Even Sony who was championing the 3D angle with the PS3 and their TV lines have relegated games with stereoscopic 3D as nothing more than a bullet point. Even with movies, it’s the big dumb ‘blockbusters’ that get 3D, and people put up with it because they must, it seems not because they want to.

Nintendo took a gamble that 3D was what consumers want, they lost that one. In the end you get the evolution of the DS that gives you games that look better but unfortunately the average smart phone now can produce far better looking games. Now I’m not saying the Smart Phone market is going to destroy the hand held market that Nintendo has dominated for 20+ years, but already it’s teetering on the edge, the metaphorical boulder just hanging over the head of mobile gaming. I’m not going to say for a second this is a Nintendo only problem, Sony looks like it has tried for the second time with the Vita and it seems like it is burning, I suspect Sony has tread these waters too often now and unless something dramatic occurs this will be their last hand held. I digress, though.

Think about it you have in your pocket (or bag) a device which makes calls, has a near constant data connection, has a massive library of games that cost between nothing and around $20 as a maximum as well as playing music, video and almost anything you can think of through the expansion of apps and it does it better than the 3DS does these things natively. Admittedly a lot of games on iOS or Android don’t click with me because on-screen controls are, to put it plainly, ineffective, lack feedback etc, etc (everything that has been said 100 times before is true). The thing is that even with these issues they will satisfy some 90% of smart phone owners, and despite the shortcomings of the platform in comparison to the 3DS, it sure does suit me on the go.

Now let’s turn our attention to the Wii’s tablet controller, oh I’m sorry, the WiiU. Yes that’s right Nintendo can’t get the message across this is a whole new console. It hasn’t helped that in all promotional material that white box appears alarmingly similar to the Wii (even though we have no idea what it will look like at all). I’m not saying that the core will be confused, the core know the ins and outs of the industry follows news with fanatical passion, the problem here is those just on the edge those that know games a little maybe buy 2 to 3 games a year that find out technology news from the BBC or CNN. This console and campaign just hasn’t been doing enough to differentiate itself to those consumers on the fringe and that’s a worry.

A new console or a new peripheral?

The next problem is the controller. Now think for a second, just one will do, what made the Wii wildly popular? That’s right the ability to appeal to a wider audience, now good or bad and whatever your thoughts on appealing to the ‘casuals’ it sure as hell made a lot of money. Now think on this the attach rate of software was poor, yes Wii Fit and Wii Sports sufficed for a large portion of the community but balance out the fact that Nintendo never loses on hardware (until recently). How many Wii’s were sold? Yeah that’s a fair chunk of change. Now think on this what made that console so ridiculously popular with the casual market? I’d bet it’s the fact that you had a controller that would work using basically 2 buttons and motions that while not exactly 1 to 1, translated what you did in the real world into the game world.

Now as a parallel think on the tablet market, what has made this product explode in popularity? Without fully studying consumer habits and marketing research I would wager that some of the top answers would come back as portability, simplicity of use, vibrant display. Now this is speculation but the touch resistive displays in the DS and 3DS have tended to be pretty lacklustre, looking dull and only useful for menu selections and very limited gameplay options. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot you can do with a touch interface but I am sceptical about how many compelling experiences you can create and add to that there is still the option to use Wii-motes and that 360 styled controller. To me it seems like an each way bet, in that they have no idea how compelling the tablet will be as a controller so they can bin it and transfer across to another scheme when it doesn’t work as planned. Also think about your tablet, or any tablet you’ve used ever how many buttons did it have? 2 or 3 perhaps?  Now look at the tablet above, yeah it's not as simple and frankly it looks a bit cumbersome.

I sure hope as a gamer this comes off but to be perfectly honest I can't see it happening Nintendo has been producing fantastic games and consoles for 30 years, I hope it all doesn't come crumbling down with the WiiU, here's hoping Nintendo know what they're doing.

Mulling the Mass Effect Ending OR: How I learned to stop worrying and learned to love the ending

The below was (mostly) written prior to the release of the ‘Extended Cut DLC’, I have also provided some follow up thoughts on the way the reworking has been handled.

In the period since the release of Mass Effect has been released much has been made of the ending either for or against, mostly the latter, of course, or at least more of the latter are making themselves heard.

That is neither here nor there in the end, the game ended how it ended and I would be thoroughly satisfied if it was left at that (obligatory potential spoiler warning).

Watch out they're coming to destroy the ending!

Image from time.com (Bioware Attributed Image)

This whole saga essentially proves what people have known for a while, gamers have the feeling that they are entitled to get what they want in a product. No other creative medium would the adoring (or not so adoring) public demand a rewrite, could you imagine Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg being demanded to recut their films because of fan demand (some would argue the possibly should have at times, and even George Lucas who is quite prone to a recut, has never done so at fan’s request…it’s always self serving and for his vision which by now that vision is more than questionable), it beggars belief that Bioware would lack the confidence in their vision and actually comply with these near rabid fans.

The main issue seems to be that the endings didn’t take into account your choices throughout the series, and let’s face it, it doesn’t. That’s not a fault that’s a vision, one of those ones that does matter. This game had to end. No trickery just a statement of fact, it had to reach a pinnacle all the story lines had to converge to one point. What my belief is that these people wanted an option where it was sunshine and roses, Shepard lived and we could continue making choices, like whether he retired to Neptune’s 2^nd largest moon or spent his retirement hanging out in seedy bars continually picking up girlfriends (or boyfriends, no discrimination here).

In case you missed all 3 games, it’s a pretty bleak scenario; the Reapers are harvesting parts of whole civilisations and destroying the rest. It was pretty obvious that there was some sacrifice was going to be made. The ending basically boils down to the same choices you make in every scenario, a paragon, a renegade and a somewhere in the middle solution, which like all your previous actions, have consequences to others, it’s just that Shepard has basically one way he can go to save life in the universe, the ultimate sacrifice.

And major plotlines actually do take into account all your choices and wrap up those major plotlines elegantly. Does it tie directly into the ending, well no, but to have consistent plot lines running through the 60 to 90 hours these games could potentially last for, it is an astonishing feat and to be tied up so convincingly is an impressive feat, and I know that when I lost a potential war asset because of choices I’ve made not just in the third instalment but the first and second too.

 Others have complaints about the lack of exposition, with consequences to those friends that we held near and dear, which I guess ties back in to the above point as well. To be honest I wouldn’t be a fan of the campy 5 years later…’Wrex retired to Omega 5 after the war, and still looking for love and a cure for the genophage’. I could see the collective roll their eyes at that one, ultimately does it matter? This has and always has been Shepard’s Story, the team members ultimately tools to make your life easier, sure we grew to love some of them and loathe others but ultimately what happened to them doesn’t matter, you sacrificed yourself so they could live, ultimately giving further context wouldn’t give any more impression that your choices mattered, maybe I hated Wrex and only grudgingly let him survive to the third game, because he seemed to be the most useful way for my game to progress, I’m so upset that he’s living peacefully on Omega 5, see how this works? In fact this leads to a weird case where Bioware were never going to win, regardless of what loose ends they did or didn’t tie up there would have been someone who wasn’t happy with this thread or another wound up. It’s arguably a problem that games have over any other medium, we’ve all spent 60 plus hours shaping and moulding the character, he is part written character, part avatar for each individual, it’s hard not to feel invested, that this is really our story not written by a group of people in a room halfway across the world, writing not only to make a great product, but to fill out their own vision.

A possible concession is that the game does try to cram in a lot of information into the last 5 to 10 minutes that had not been previously alluded to. That’s fine, ultimately I do agree. The revelations could have potentially been dolled out through the game through information that you pick up as you finish major questlines but on the whole I’m Okay with it too. The ending is a point that no other civilisation has reached, it’s fairly reasonable to assume that no one else had this information to dispense, either. I’ll be the first to concede that it is all just a little bit hokey, that some of the justification of the Reapers seems a little nonsensical, why didn’t they start the cycle with the emergence of the geth? Why wasn’t the failure of this current cycle be explained? It raises more questions than answers, yet it still fits, not every story needs to be explained in detail and sometimes leaving you wanting more is better rather than crapping on in 4 hour cut scenes to wrap every last detail.

Mystical super holo-program or convenient hole filler? 

Image from masseffect.wikia.com

Ultimately the caving of Bioware to the outcry of disgruntled fans makes all my arguments a moot point; sure it’s not a new, reworked ending, which I am glad there was not a capitulation to the wants of the vocal minority. Instead we get some extra scenes, which ‘add context’ so perhaps those 4 hour cut scenes are abound after all.    

Addendum: The Extended Cut was actually everything I wanted to be, considering that it was decided 'it' must exist. I am extremely pleased that they stuck to their guns and the outcomes are essentially the same. It gives greater context to why the reapers are destroying and why your choices are what they are. It also even manages to give the finger to those who said the original 3 choices are not in line with the character they built, well guess what deciding against all those gets you? That’s right by refusing to choose you actually destroy all advanced civilisations, puts these decisions into context doesn’t it?

Maybe it reveals that this game is about sacrifices, doing things for the greater good not about crafting your character as you like, how quickly people forget that the decisions you made were always constrained in one way or another.

All in all the ending stays true to the vision (making some points in my above ramblings essentially moot) while still adding to both the mythology of the Mass Effect universe and providing greater context to why these decisions are set out before you.

All in all these are great ways to wrap to wrap up the series whether you stick with the original ending or go with the extended cut (despite my earlier reservations).

Hello World!

So I've been thinking of starting a blog for quite a while now, I'm a gamer who as more or less been there done that, hence being jaded, you know the one, always on forums complaining about Assassins Duty: Modern Battlefield 7 or whatever 'megachise' (heh, Mega and Franchise in one, I'm so clever) is due for release.

I'm not really taking a specific 'take' on the industry and I'm very much an outsider, rumour and speculation may be rife and unsourced.

Opinions are mine and I make no apologies for what I think, whether you agree or not.

Also the world does exist outside these walls, so grin and bear when I talk about politics and current affairs.

Until next time.