From movie reviews to geek news, I aim to cover any subject with a fresh approach and honest opinion
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Well it didn't take long for 2014 to deliver an unusual baby name. Adam and his wife are big fans of Mass Effect and had decided quite some time ago that they would name any daughter after Quarian technical genius Tali'Zorah. Well the time has come and with the birth of their daughter imminent they have confirmed they are sticking with the name.
There is no confirmation at this stage whether they are going to go through with the full name or shorten it to the less need to explain Tali.
As you may be able to tell by the headline I am really in two minds about this news. It goes without saying that the child is potentially in for a lifetime of explaining what may well become an obscure reference in years to come, however the name itself isn't overtly terrible and Tali really is one of the better female characters in gaming, and I am willing to admit to a bit of a nerd crush on this mysterious alien temptress during the many hours spent playing the Mass Effect series.
Considering over the last twelve months babies have been born with the names Cheese and Blip, and lets not forget the completely travesty of North West, it really could be much, much worse.
UPDATE:: After trawling the internet I found the original source via a forum post on The Escapist and it turns out Tali'Zorah has been officially welcomed to the world, complete with official paperwork completed. I'm pretty sure she'll be referred to as "Tali" (unless she gets in trouble because we all know that is the only time someone's full name is used!)
With 2013 coming to a close I thought it would be timely to have a look back at some of the best games of the year. This isn't a countdown and I am completely unable to choose any of the following as a game of the year. This is simply a rundown of what I considered to be the highlights.
So without further ado...
SPELUNKY HD
Okay, I realise that this was around on Xbox live for a good year or so plus I am still a huge fan of the original freeware version but 2013 was the year this randomly generated, super tough but hugely re-playable platformer hit the PC and PS3. Yes, I bought it on both! Why not check out my review.
BIOSHOCK INFINITE
The world created for this metaphysical shooter is just amazing. Getting into the flying city of Columbia is as breathtaking as the place itself. Of course this beautiful city soon shows itself to be a place of extreme intolerance and violence. Okay, I do no this game is a first person shooter but I still feel the level of violence could have been peeled back a little since once it gets ramped up towards the end it becomes more of a chore and has an adverse affect on the game. It's still worth seeing it through for the insanity of the finale (even if one of the big reveals is pretty much given away in advance). Oh, and if you find the guitar definitely play it.
TOMB RAIDER
Hmm, reboot. Reboots can be a big concern at times. The Tomb Raider series had gotten a little stale so the idea of taking a young, inexperienced Lara Croft and putting her in a fight or die situation was certainly intriguing. Thankfully the new Tomb Raider delivered, with spectacular scenery, frantic action, lots of hidden treasure, thrilling set pieces and a crazy mystical plot to move things along. There is a bit too much reliance on quick time events (where failure leads to some of the most gruesome death animations I have seen in recent times) and the "inexperienced" Ms Croft seems to quickly get over her aversion to shooting arrows and firing bullets through peoples heads, but overall this is a great gaming experience.
SAINTS ROW IV
There are really two main franchises that have become synonymous with sandbox games and while on the surface they seem rather similar their latest installments really do show just how different they are. First up (because I played it first) is Saints Row IV. Considering just how crazy the third installment of this series was it was always going to be difficult to top it. Fortunately the developers delivered giving us a plot where the leader of The Saints managed to become president (during a sequence with the best use of Aerosmith's "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" ever) and an alien invasion. Throw in a bunch of super powers, all conveniently explained by the plot, regular parodies of other games and Keith F*cking David and you have a big pile of fun!
GTA V
The second big sandbox title is of course GTA V and boy did Rockstar step up to the plate. With three main characters to explore the massive map with and missions where switching between them allows you to mix up the gameplay to help keep things varied and fresh. You are still stuck driving cars over long differences, something I found detracted from GTA IV, however the driving is more enjoyable this time round. Add in crazy side missions and random encounters to become involved with and you end up with an epic tale of three horrible human beings that you just can't help but like.
RAYMAN LEGENDS
Rayman Origins was a fantastic platformer, however it's difficulty curve pretty quickly turned into a sheer vertical precipice. The sequel very sensibly keeps the colourful fun characters, great music and fast paced gameplay of its predecessor but adjusts the difficulty for a more gentle experience. Cleverly the challenge is still there as to unlock all the games secrets you need to find some fiendishly hidden secret areas and complete bonus levels that ramp up the challenge significantly. Oh and the musical challenge levels are sheer brilliance. Near perfect platform shenanigans, don;t trust me check out this review I found lying around... somewhere...
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL THAT REMAINS
There is a definite prerequisite before playing the final game on my list. The first series of the Walking Dead game showed how episodic gaming should be done and provided a grueling adventure game experience set in the Walking Dead world. Simply put you must play the first season, and the mini-episode DLC "400 Days" before launching into the latest installment. The first episode of the second season is now available and carries on the story based on decisions from the first season. There isn't much in the way of plot in this initial episode but it clearly shows the intent to ensure the thrilling, and often gruesome, world is experienced to the full. This is the most fun you can have in a depressing bleak world of death.
South Australia and video games have a bit of a turbulent history. Long term Attorney General, Michael Atkinson was a major obstacle for over a decade by blocking any attempts to establish an R18+ rating for games in Australia, and more recently the current incumbent in that same role, John Rau, considered that just replacing classification stickers with higher ratings or forcing developers to resubmit all their games were effective ways to deal with the new classification rules.
There is a current campaign in South Australia focusing on gambling addiction and how it can be prevented. Part of the focus is on education for children and an awareness campaign for parents after a study showed links between games that have gambling like features and gambling problems further down the track. So far so noble.
Unfortunately the problem lies in the delivery. The poster (above) with a young girl behind an iPad at a poker table makes the connection but the caption 'gambling starts with games' is just plain awful in its generalisation. Now this has caused quite a bit of outrage over various internet forums but I am not prepared to go as far as calling this an all out attack on gamers, but it certainly does not help with the desire most gamers have to see there passion considered the equal (and sometimes superior) to other artistic expressions like cinema and literature.
It baffles me that such a targeted campaign that is essentially trying to get parents to actually monitor what their kids are playing can drop the ball with such a broad and over simplified tag line. While there are plenty of people who will get the message you can bet there will still be a sizeable group who will decide that this is just more evidence of the horrible evil within computer games. Thanks a lot South Australia!
This is joke right? Right? Anyone... Oh, they're serious.
When the original Fable was released way back in the wild heady days of 2004 our illustrious classification board gave it a solid M rating at the time. Was this because of sex, or drugs (the usual suspects)? Nope. It is very combat heavy and you have the choice of being nice (only fighting bad guys, and often sparing their lives) or nasty (kill anything that gets in your way). So why on earth would the HD remake suddenly become an adults only R18+. Well, it's because of sex.
Apparently, under the updated classification rules, the fact you can get married and consummate said partnership comes under the "Sexual activity related to incentives or rewards". Below is what happens in this game. Before you click play remember this is something the classification board is deadly serious about...
Well that is about as interactive as a brick that is sitting on a high shelf. But then there are the "incentive or rewards" from this little piece of fade to black. So what advantages does your character get from this sordid encounter? Nothing. Not a thing. The original article above suggests you and your partner can have a child but that little feature wasn't introduced until Fable 2.
The inconsistent and just plain ridiculous decisions relating to games since our pretend R18+ rating was introduced really shows that the system is still broken. If this decision stands then I guess the next Sims game will have to be R18+.
The ongoing review by the Australian Law Reform Commission has a possible answer. An industry based classification system like the ESRB in the US and PEGI in the UK is the real answer. This doesn't take government regulation out of the picture since any developer or publisher can still have their rating reviewed should there be reports of inappropriate material for any given rating.
As for the Fable decision... seriously I actively participated in the R18+ campaign for over a decade and THIS is the outcome...
I'm sure some of you remember the Telltale Games bundle competition I ran to celebrate this blog breaking through the walls of Facebook and Twitter. I apologise for the delay (partially caused by my Breaking Bad obsession), but now it is time for this competition to be wrapped up.
Drumroll please....
Our winner is Simm (c'mon I'm not putting their full name here).
Congratulations and I will be sending your download code very, very soon.
I have a few more Steam keys up my sleeve and am looking at putting together an Indie game pack, so stay tuned for your chance to win.
The negative effects of gaming are regular fodder for the Fox "News" Network so it takes something extra special for a report to stand out from the general background noise of violence.
This report, complete with expert commentary from a "life coach" (not sure exactly what that entails) talks about the terrible influence of sexy female video characters on girls self image and how it is worse than Miley Cyrus' twerking fiasco and using nice relevant examples like last gen Lara Croft, Chun Li and Bayonetta. The justification for this expose... a report by Stanford University regarding sexualised avatars in virtual environments that did not use any of the games mentioned (or any games at all), and the focus of the story focused on one aspect of the study where they, unsurprisingly, took it out of context.
I always feel like using US sensationalised reporting for this award, but they make it so easy.
So for taking one small part of a study that didn't involve video games, taking it out of context and making your story about video games then getting the "expert opinion" of someone who has nothing to do with the study or video games the writers of this fine piece of Fox news "journalism" are hereby awarded this weeks "Clever Geek of The Week" award.
Telltale Games is the studio that has bought adventure games back. They started out be re-booting classics like Sam and Max and Monkey Island and moves on to games based on franchises like Back to the Future and Wallace and Gromit. Last year they received massive acclaim and several Game of the Year awards for their excellent take on The Walking Dead.
Here is your chance to experience some of their classic games on PC (via Steam activation) with this simple competition.
Yep that's right, I am giving away a collection of the following excellent games:
Just so you know, I have no affiliation with Telltale Games or Steam. I received the Steam Key as part of a package and already owned the above titles.
So what do you need to do?
Simply share this post or my blog through your preferred social media outlet. Drop a quick comment letting me know and your name will be in the draw. Make sure you do it by the 30th of September and the winner will be notified during the first week of October.
Further to my previous story about the IT Pricing Inquiry recommendations another little snippet has been released. Essentially it has been formally recognised that "it is almost invariably cheaper for Australian gamers to purchase and ship physical media from the United Kingdom than it is to purchase a digital copy of the same game." They also say that "vendors have not produced any evidence to explain why differentials are so high for such content."
Let that sink in... it is cheaper to buy and import a physical product than it is to download data from the same server that is selling the same game cheaper to the rest of the world. Most of the arguments publishers march out to try to justify the price of games in Australia only relate to buying a physical copy from your local EB Games. Trying to use the "high rent/wages/import costs" arguments just doesn't work when the same publishers tell Steam to charge Australians $89.99 for Call Of Duty MW2, when the same game is available to US Steam subscribers for $30. And people wonder why Australia ranks so highly when bittorrent stats are compiled.
Australian gamers are gradually getting smarter with their buying habits however it is a slow, slow process. I for one would love to be able to support local businesses but unless there is a massive discount it is just not worth it. There does seem to be a trend of lower price new releases but never on the big AAA title launches. You see the publishers know that people will pay the extra cost to be able to play the next big title ASAP so there is no incentive to see a reduction in prices on them.
I would love to have an easy answer but the only one I can think of involves everyone turning their backs on local retailers and just plain refusing to pay inflated prices but at the end of the day that will hurt a lot of other Australians before it has any impact on the publishers and distributors.
Been looking for a fun platform experience ala Sonic 1, 2 or 3 from the old Sega Megadrive games? Well fan and homebrew developer LakeFepard has been hard at work and has just released his second Sonic game for free use on any PC. I didn't even know about the first one.
Sonic BTS (Before the Sequel) and ATS (After the Sequel) are set between Sega's iconic games and really keep the feel of the originals. It's fast, colourful fun. If you have played Sonic 2 particularly then you will feel right at home.
Well, you would, if there was controller support. Playing this sort of a game on a keyboard really does affect the feel and flow. Fortunately there is the freeware application JoyToKey which helps to alleviate this.
So there you have it. Free fun games without all the additional stuff that Sega has been trying to stuff in to the franchise for years. There is a reason the newer Sonic games aren't as much fun Sega. Look at this guys stuff and take notes!
Click on the full story above for download links.
UPDATE:: Turns out by hitting Ctrl-Y in game you can bring up an options menu that lets you select Joystick. Not the most obvious choice but it's nice that it's there!
Disney's attempt at Toy Story for video games may not reach the heights it's aiming for but it certainly has heaps of heart. The title character Wreck-It Ralph (John C Reilly) plays the villain in Fix It Felix Jr, a 30 year old video game in a local arcade.
Ralph has had enough of being the bad guy and sets out to win a medal in a neighbouring game, Hero's Duty, to prove his bona fides and get acceptance from his fellow game characters. When things don't go to plan he ends up stuck in another game forced to help the delightful Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) to get his medal back.
This is helped by game characters being able to travel between games via electrical plugs with the power board serving as a central area where they can all mix. The clever use of movie specific characters combined with those from established games such as Street Fighter and Pac-Man builds a versatile world full of colour and fun.
The way the characters interact, develop and grow throughout the movie is a mark of genius and ultimately build a movie that all the family can enjoy.
But don't just take my word for it, let's ask for a professional opinion:
M (5) "I like the funny bit with Vanellope. I don't like the Cybugs. They're not scary, Wreck-It Ralph isn't scary, I just don't like them"
So we all agree! Wreck-It Ralph is a great movie everyone can enjoy.
With E3 fast approaching, and Nintendo announcing they won't be having a big showcase conference, all the attention will be on Sony and Microsoft to see where they go with their brand new consoles. Instead of trying to be psychic and speculate on what may be I thought I'd take a look at what they have done so far so that we are all up to speed on the state of the next generation of consoles.
THE SONY ANNOUNCEMENT
Sony kicked it off by providing a teaser that something would be announced back in February. The grand reveal came around and they proudly showed us... a controller... yeah.
They went on to give us the specs of the PS4 and show us some very pretty footage of tech demos and games in progress including a dude who seemed very, very excited about cars. I actually started to wonder if he was going to be ushered to a quiet and private room out back.
After all this wonderful smoke and mirrors they completely failed to roll out a console which of course set the internet on fire for about a week and then everyone went back to looking at grumpy cat memes.
THE MICROSOFT ANNOUNCEMENT
When Microsoft announced that they were having a reveal on 21 May there were some people wondering why they didn't wait till E3 and of course what would actually be revealed. The big day rolled around and front and centre was the new XBox One console complete with Kinect 2 and apparently ready to roll. So what next gen gaming treats would the latest version of one of the most popular games consoles in the works bring?
TV apparently.
The announcement was dominated by the televisual features the new console had. If you ever try a drinking game with a replay of it do not make 'TV' or 'sports' a drink word. It would kill you.
Game wise there was footage of some stuff still in very early development and, umm, a mo-cap dog in the new Call of Duty (I am so referring to it as Call of Doggy from now on).
The internet buzz lasted a few days until nobody had anymore time for that.
IN SUMMARY
So, to recap, the early announcements really came from opposite directions. Sony focused on games but not what you could play them on while Microsoft gave us a feature filled shiny black box with no actual games. It's safe to say that at E3 Sony will be focusing heavily on the hardware while Microsoft will finally give us the games.
I think Sony will steal most of the thunder as they will probably introduce some new IPs and then try to wow us with the other features
Okay, I know I said I wouldn't speculate but, you know... oh look at these funny videos.
Update: Larry Hyrb has announced via twitter that TV is not on the agenda for Microsoft's E3 conference.
