2010 in Review

When all's said and done, 2010 was probably a bit more of an interesting year than I'd have anticipated. When it started, I created a list of things I wanted to achieve before years end (such as get a girlfriend, get a full time job, leave the state - that kind of thing) and wanted to see if I can achieve at least one of those. I'm glad to say that I did.

Let's start with the thing that defined most of the year for me, which was getting a job. Between finishing up University in November and going through the graduation sometime afterwards, was the constant searching for a job. I spent pretty much half the year trying to get some work, had way too much free time than I really wanted.

Job searching would have to be the most painful and depressing experience I've had to go through in the last few months - constantly writing up cover letters and resumes, constantly getting rejection, constantly getting no explained reason as to why I didn't move to the next phase...it came to the point which I had to get some assistance from the local welfare groups, which was the most fucking depressing thing I'd ever have to do. There's nothing I hate more than not only being taught "HEY, THIS IS HOW YOU GET A JOB!", but also waiting in line to submit paperwork to be paid for effectively finding a job.

Things turned around in the middle of the year - I managed to get a spot in a somewhat local council which saw me volunteer as a trainee teacher, which if I had stuck around - would've seen me teach elderly or newer citiziens to learn how to use a computer. I had left because of a job interview attained by one of the people at the council, for a company that specializes in mail insertion and delivery, and it was a full time gig! And thankfully, I had gotten that job!

Getting used to it was probably the hardest thing. Initially, the job was quite a distance away from home, which resulted in a 5am wakeup, leaving home at 6am to make a 7am start, with a 3pm finish. Was a rough few months, in addition to learning how to actually do the job. Then there was leaving all the free time I had accquired, which meant that a few commitments I had prior had to be changed. Though this all got better when the job shifted much closer to home.

As for Level 3, it was a fantastic year. Getting recognized for my Twitter (that'd be DarthHomer), taking part in much live stuff at the various Monash Computer Games Boot Camp's across the year, learning how to create a livestream (and by extension, a live show), and taking part in the 200th episode of the show. Makes the bad stuff associated with it seem like nothing in the long run.

Only real disappointment in this regard was the stopping of the audio podcast. Sure, there are respectable and understandable reasons, but it sucks that something that I've put a tonne of time in has suddenly stopped. And sure, the livestream is awesome and all, but the personal investment is too great to me to not let it pass by easily.

I guess 2010 wasn't that bad of a year after all. Well, the second half was anyway - I can't recall much of the first half. Bring on 2011, I say.

Project CRPG #1 - An Introduction, of sorts...

I have a terrible habit of buying a tonne of games that I never get around to beating. Mostly because of lost interest, but there are cases where I've been pissed off with a game, is virtually unbeatable (for whatever reason) and plenty more reasons I can't quite think of at the moment. Point is, I have a problem. For the most part, I've been doing my best to curb that habit this year - most of the games I've attained I've given a fair go and attempted to beat - with more success than actual failure. But rarely do I go back and attempt to finish a game in anticipation for a soon to be released sequel.

Yeah, this requires a bit of backstory.

For the longest time, I've been wanting to finish the original Dragon Age - even with the announcement (and subsequent release) of the Awakenings expansion and the sequel, it was always something that I had meant to do, but was swamped with other things that I had wanted to play. The same goes with the Witcher - a game that I had really dug, but lost interest in.

And almost with the same time frame, I heard Dragon Age being discussed from the perspective of someone who hadn't played the game before on local podcast "GameTaco", and the subsequent announcement of the Witcher 2 release date triggered something within me. The desire to go back into those worlds and see the ends of their stories.

It was perfect timing too - there weren't very many more console games that I had wanted to play through (except through mostly older stuff like the Sly Trilogy or Prince of Persia Trilogy), and I'd all but lost interest in Fallout: New Vegas (which was taking up all my PC time).

I also guess the other trigger was the story incentive. Both Dragon Age II and Witcher 2 take advantage of cleared saves to tell new events in the story, and I didn't want to go into either sequel completely fresh - I wanted my world and my story to continue. That, and Bioware had done a pretty great job of it in Mass Effect 2.

So the goal was set - I've got until March 2010 to finish the original Dragon Age, and May 2010 to finish off the Witcher. No matter what, I'm going to finish both games, because I know I can. Sure, it'll mean juggling my game review commitments, jobs and other fun stuff, but hey, why not? Plus, I want to write about these things for as long as I can keep it interesting (or find something interesting to talk about.

Thus begins "Project Beat CRPGS Before Sequels Come Out", or "Project CRPG", for short. The name comes from Donald, a co-worker on Level 3, whom had a personal project called "Project RPG", in which he attempted to beat as many RPGs this year as he could. At best, he got quite far into Final Fantasy XIII, which is more than what I can say about myself!

Either way, welcome to a wonderful journey. First stop, revisiting Dragon Age: Origins...

Review: DJ Hero 2 (PS3/360/Wii)

DJ Hero was one of the most ambitious titles of last year, and really didn’t get all the recognition that it really deserved. Admittedly, it was a bit of a bold gamble (especially going as crazy as pricing a special edition at $300 AUD, shortly reduced to $100), but for those who took the risk, it paid off with one of the freshest and most exhilarating rhythm games seen in some time. Regardless, a sequel was expected, and DJ Hero 2 doesn’t fail to impress – providing one of the best rhythm game experiences of 2010.

For the most part, DJ Hero 2 is a refinement of last years game – it improves on just about every aspect of the gameplay, without adding too much new. For starters – freestyling now plays a bigger role in the game. Previously, the only real element of personalization that you had in a mix were via sample zones – which were tied to generic sets you needed to unlock (which everyone just used the Public Enemy samples, regardless). Not only now are the samples tied to the different songs in a mix, but there are zones now where you can freely swap between the two songs in a mix, as well as zones where you can freely scratch. And you’re now scored for all this – adding in not only a deeper layer of personalization to a mix, but also giving you an incentive to experiment to try make a mix sound fantastic.

Replacing last years rather haphazard single player mode is Empire Mode. There’s supposed to be a story about how you’re travelling around the world, building up your brand, but it’s something that only appears in the loading screens upon starting the domination of a club. Effectively, Empire Mode is more or less a much more organized career mode than last years – the flow of each club starts off with you playing as one of the many guest DJ’s (such as the RZA, Deadmau5, David Guetta etc.) in a megamix (three/four mixes combined together), a few setlists, a battle against a rival DJ, a battle against a guest DJ, and an unlockable bonus mix to play. It’s not revolutionary, but it does what it’s expected of.

However, the most significant addition to the game is a bigger emphasis on multiplayer – which was an element that was underrepresented in a big way in the original game. In one of the best moves developer Freestyle Games could’ve made, DJ Hero 2’s multiplayer component is heavily inspired from sister studio Neversoft’s underrated Guitar Hero 5. The Party Play modes (the drop in/drop out co-op) are present, as well as a host of different competitive multiplayer modes – the most prominent of these is a checkpoint battle, wherein you battle to see who can do the well across a mix. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had much of the chance to check any of these modes out – lacking an additional DJ Hero turntable to do so.

In addition, one of the weakest elements of last years game – the DJ vs Guitar mixes, have been completely nixed, replaced by a singing mechanic. Unlike with the DJ/Guitar work, you can play co-operatively on a larger portion of the mixes – which immediately is a plus. That being said though, the mechanic is something that provides an interesting experience. Unlike other games with a singing mechanic, DJ Hero 2 requires you to know how to sing two songs at the one time, as well as making you forget how you’re supposed to sing the songs, thanks to the mixes changing up the order in how lyrics progress. It functions well enough, but it certainly won’t be a replacement for other games.

Visually, DJ Hero 2 is underwhelming. Not that it looks bad – but it lacks the distinctive style and look of the first game that defined what DJ Hero was about. Ditching it for a more realistic look doesn’t quite work here. The environments do look great, as do all the animation work. The models for the guest DJ’s range from good (The RZA, Deadmau5) to kinda off (Tiesto, David Guetta). Otherwise, looks fine.

It’s a completely different story for the sound. As mentioned above, the guitar based stuff has been completely nixed, and there’s practically no repetition in terms of the mixes (so no more of that godawful Billy Squier song that was mixed with at least 5 or 6 songs). As such – there’s much more of a focus to the soundtrack on music that can be mixed together well, providing one of the best soundtracks of 2010. In particular – some of the house/electronica mixes towards the end of the setlist are quite fantastic, such as New Orders “Blue Monday” vs Calvin Harris’s “I’m Not Alone”, or even Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” vs Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E”. With that being said, there are quite a few dud mixes – it becomes apparent that no matter how much you scratch, mix or fade between; you’re never going to make Soulja Boy, Lil’ Wayne, Lil’ John and Chamillionare sound good.

As far as sequels go – DJ Hero 2 trumps the original. While it doesn't add anything particularly revolutionary or game changing, it's a fantastic refinement on one of the better games of last year. It's worth it alone for the fantastic soundtrack. Just as long as you ignore the singing portions of the game, you're going to have a hell of a time.

The Bomb Just Went Off

I'm not a particularly huge fan of Giant Bomb. Sure, I do enjoy their video content and their podcast, the Giant Bombcast, is very entertaining- but that's just about it. Their opinions rub me the wrong way, their fanbase is far too obnoxious and praising...but I do quite like the other Whiskey Media sites. What's this got to do with anything, you may enquire?

Whiskey Media is starting up a subscription program across all its sites - with two models. For $4.95 US, you get a monthly subscription, access to HD Video Content, an exclusive HTML 5 mobile site and access to a live show on Fridays and premium profile content. For $50 US a year, you get all the above, plus no ads, $10 in savings (their words) and a custom T-shirt.

I'm not going to get into why Whiskey Media should be charging for this - there have been plenty of examples of websites charging for "premium" content and have had plenty for the people who don't want to pay and still have a great experience (IGN, for example). However though, this does affect one of the core WM elements that is honestly quite disturbing.

On the Giant Bomb side (via NeoGAF), their Bombcast will actually affected adversely. If you're a paying member of WM, you get access to the full Bombcast (usually which lasts around two hours). If you're not a paying subscriber, then what'll happen is that you'll get the first half of the episode, and then a week later, get the second half for free. 

Put simply, that is a fucking horrible business decision.

Let's consider this from a number of angles. With gaming podcasts, timing is everything. News is very easily datable. There's always something new to cover and you can't really fall behind. By splitting the show in two and giving a week delay for the people who don't want to pay, they miss out on timely content. Admittedly, there are reports that they'll try limit the time-sensitive material, but at the same time, that'll still affect the podcast.

But what really gets to me is the sense that the only way to get a full show is to be a paying member. This isn't one of those sense of entitlement types of deals here - but a matter of telling their audience (which although I don't have numbers, is surely bloody high) that the ONLY way to enjoy a full show is to pay for it.

There are plenty of podcasts out there that ask for donations. Not aggressively, but at least have the option that if you like the show, you can give as much as you want - I've never come across a single podcast that's ever asked that if you want a complete show, you need to be a subscriber. Sure, there are things like the Ricky Gervais podcasts, but he barely does them, and the less said about him the better.

As well as that, paying doesn't exactly give you that much of a bonus if you just want to listen to the Bombcast. For everything else, you at least get higher quality video or no ads, which is something. Here, it's not like you get a super special high quality audio file or even bonus outtakes. 

Though at least there's something good to come out of this. Whiskey Media's offering (via Twitter) to make the Bombcast free to everyone, should they get 5,000 paid members by September 10th, 10am PST. We'll know soon enough if it works.

Otherwise, it's a fucking terrible decision, and I hope to hell they recant on this. 

Level 3 - Episode 185

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Level 3 is back on the blocky with a new episode, Donald Reviews Silent Hill: Shattered memories, Jason gets in to some Deathspank and reviews it! Timmay finishes the reviews with Singularity. Hosted by Jason and Kirsty.

Level 3 - Episode 184

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The definition of normal is a strange thing when it comes to Level 3, but here we are back with a traditional episode, Jamies reviews the latest Prince of Persia, Brad reviews Lost Planet 2 and Jason reviews Crackdown 2. Hosted by Jason, Mick and Brad.

Level 3 - Episode 183

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This is the second of two episodes filmed live from the Monash Uni Computer Games Boot Camp, As we bring you a very special edition of Level 3 called Top Game a flattering parody of Top Gear. In this comical extravaganza Jason , Jamie and Kirsty get into a battle over which current generation console is the best.

Level 3 - Episode 182

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This is the first of two special eps put together from live footage of our coverage of the Monash Uni Computer Games Boot Camp, this is an episode of interviews with some of the various speakers that attended the event. Hosted by Jason and Kirsty.

Level 3 - Episode 181

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Another fist full of Game Previews this week with a dash of Weird and Retro as we set up for boot camp. Be sure to check out our website from time to time as we will be live streaming from the Monash Games boot camp all week.

Level 3 - Episode 179

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Jason keeps his Thumbs out for Mick in this ice cold episode of Level 3, Reviews this week are Jason - Earthworm Jim HD, Jamie - UFC and Jason - Split/Second

Level 3 - Episode 180

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Did you miss the E3 conference? well guess what so did we? But what we do have is a world cup full of trailers from E3 with a bit of net new in between just to mix it up a bit. Some of the bigger trailers include GT5 , NFS: Hot Pursuit, Fall Out 3 New Vegas and Crackdown 2 just to name a few. Hosted by Mick, Aleks, Jason, Mark and Kane on the baseball horn? Also see our competition page for VIP access to our Monash Uni boot camp night on the 3rd of July.

Quite Possibly the Stupidest Announcement at E3 2010

So E3 2010 is going on at the moment in the US, and it's an been quite an interesting show. As most people would suspect, a lot of the show has been focused around Motion Control and 3D Gaming - both of which have lead to some of the best and worst moments of the show all round. Yet funnily enough, those weren't the worst announcements to come out of the show.

Lately, Konami have been really weird - announcing just the most random licenses to pick up and make games out of. This is the same company who tried to make a game based on the 2003 events in Fallujiah, and successfully made a game based around Saw, and are currently in the process of making not only a sequel to that, but also a Lucha Libre wrestling game (that's actually looking pretty cool to be honest). Yet that's pretty tame compared to the news that the latest announcement of a Glee themed Karaoke Revolution title.

Yes, Konami will be releasing a Glee themed Karaoke Revolution title.

I don't know where to begin with this.

I mean, I can understand the reasoning (THE SHOW IS SHIT HOT, AND IT MAKES MONEY) behind making the game and licensing the show, but it's the core concept that just baffles me. If you're not at all familiar with either - here's a quick summary. Karaoke Revolution is, surprisingly, a Karaoke title where you sing a whole bunch of cover versions of iconic songs. Glee is a sugary sweet TV show where actors sing a whole bunch of cover versions of iconic songs.

So...effectively, I'm singing covers of a cover.

Umm...what?

This is also the same year that saw Ubisoft present a Laser Tag game where the game is just a way of keeping stats, a game that is played by measuring your breathing via a not-Vitality Sensor and a Driver reboot that sees the main character of Tanner controlling other characters and shifting between them like a ghost, due to him being in a coma.

Good god, I just won't understand people. Still, least it makes sense for Karaoke Revolution to go for cover versions of songs, but this kind? Yeah....no.

Level 3 - Episode 178

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Did anyone say air date change? We sure didn't :/ But alas it's here and Level 3 is back to is nominal time slot on Thursday' s 10:30pm on Melbourne's C31. This week Jason review's Alpha Protocol, Jamie Reviews Picross 3D, Jason reviews a swag of iPhone Games and Apps and finally Jason reviews Blur.

Level 3 - Episode 177

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In the fully digital episode of Level 3 Jaime Reviews 3D Dot Game, Timmay reviews Dawn Of War 2 expansion Chaos Rising , Kane and Aleks Review the good ol` Turbo Grafx and finally Jason reviews Matt Hazard on XBLA

Level 3 - Episode 176

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The Level 3 cRew has ridden in to town and the show is loaded and firing off with Jason's marathon review of Red Dead Redemption, Aleks and Mark discuss the RDR Community playdate (Big thanks to everyone who participated), Jason does a quick review of Afterburner Climax from XBLA, and finally Mick kicks Kane home with FIFA World Cup 2010.

Happy 30th Birthday Pac-Man!

The late 70's to early 80's was arguable one of, if not the, most iconic periods in arcade gaming, especially if you were in the Japanese development scene - wherein some of the most iconic games ever created were, well, created in this period. We're talking games that are still as iconic today as they were then, such as Taito's Space Invaders, Nintendo's Donkey Kong and celebrating its 30th birthday today, Namco's Puck-Man, or as it's better known, Pac-Man.

You may think that Namco would have something special planned for it right? Y'know, since it's practically synomous with the company and they adore putting out Pac-Man anything, since it's still bloody popular. Nope. Nothing. Not even a port to yet another platform - because it's one of the few games that's available on just about anything...

Instead, a couple of Google engineers decided to do something even more awesome - create a port that'll run in the Google logo on the main Google page. Pretty bloody awesome, especially when you realize that you can actually play with two players, the second controlling Ms. Pac-Man. Good going Google, taking advantage of a massive missed opportunity that Namco could've totally taken advantage of. You've got less than 48hrs to play it before it's taken down, but still, it's rad.

So...yeah. Don't know what else I can say. Because let's face it - it's FREAKING PAC-MAN. It's one of those games that everyone knows about, anyone can play, and it's still completely awesome. I really don't know what else I can say about it that hasn't already been covered to death. If you just stick with the main stuff, and avoid most of the spin-offs, you'll be groovy.

Though if I were to recommend one Pac title for this special occasion, get the Xbox Live title Pac-Man Championship Edition, which is a fantastic remake of the original game. The iPhone version also works, but it's best played with a controller. Should you not have access at all to play the game, Ms. Pac-Man or even the original Pac-Man is also pretty awesome.

Happy 30th Birthday Pac-Man!

Level 3 - Episode 175

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Another Big Episode here and what not, with Jamie Reviewing Skate 3, Jason reviews Super Street FIghter 4, Aleks and Kane Weird and Retrofy the SEGA Game Gear and Finally Donald Reviews the Massive Title Alan Wake. Hosted by Jason and Mick . Why are you watching this you should be playing Red Dead Redemption tonight the 21st of May with us at 8pm AEST on the XBL community playdate.

Level 3 - Episode 174

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Donald is back with a dual review of two indie games vvvvvv and AAAAaaaaAaAAAaaaaaAAAaaaA! <- Yes they are the names of the games, We show a developers doco on Lost Planet 2, Jamie reviews Fruit Ninja on the iPhone and finally Jason Extra Life Reviews Bully. Hosted By Jason, Megs and Aleks. Don't forget our XBL community playdate on the 21st of May for the massive release of Red Dead Redemption

Super Street Fighter IV (PS3/360)

A mate of mine once told me that no Street Fighter game is perfect the first time around, and that the re-releases were a good thing, because it helped develop the series into some of the best fighting games ever made. And he’d be right – it took Capcom five re-releases to get the quintessential Street Fighter II in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and only two for the still mind blowing Street Fighter III – 3^rd Strike. The difference with those games compared to Street Fighter IV? The advent (or misuse) of Downloadable Content, wherein you don’t need a new disc to sell to get the latest version. But god bless Capcom for trying, because just over a year from the original console SFIV release, we have the latest version – Super Street Fighter IV, and it’s as good as you’d expect.

In terms of new stuff, there’s quite a significant chunk of new content here. Let’s begin with the 10 new characters, whose addition bumps up the total playable characters in the game to 35, only the second highest count of characters in a Street Fighter game; Street Fighter Alpha 3 takes the cake, with a total 38 playable characters in its most recent version. The eight returning characters all bring a welcome breath of fresh air to the game, and actually fit in rather well with the Street Fighter IV aesthetics and gameplay styles.

In particular, the Street Fighter III additions (Ibuki, Makoto and Dudley) are the most welcome here, and fit in fantastically – and are really quite fun to play as. Though it is rather curious as to why the remaining (and least popular) of the Super Street Fighter II ‘New Challengers’ T.Hawk and Dee-Jay were added. It’s not because they’re not interesting characters to play as, but out of all the characters you could possibly pick from…T.Hawk and Dee-Jay? Really?

In any case though, the two completely new characters – Juri and Hakan, bring a lot of great charm and interesting gameplay styles to the game. In particular, Hakan is very to play as. His Turkish Oil Wrestling skills make for a weird and flat out awesome show, and bring a bit more of an interesting wrestling approach to players than something standard like Zangief. While Juri isn’t as unique to play as, she’s a great character in her own right, and quite fun to mess around with. As a character, her ‘evil and loving it’ shtick is really quite welcoming and refreshing to see.

New character Juri is a blast to play. 

The other big focus to Super Street Fighter IV is in its online mode. Previously – there were only two options for online players, to play a ranked battle or to not play a ranked battle. Here, the non-ranked battle option has been removed, and has been replaced with two new options – Endless Battle and Team Battle. Endless Battle is effectively a ‘quarter-match’ mode, wherein winners of matches stay on, and take on all comers in an effort to stay on as long as possible. Once that player loses, they move to the back of the line as new challengers take on the new winner.

As for Team Battle, it’s really quite self-explanatory. Players form teams of up to four a side and battle it out. In both this and Endless Battle mode, you’ll get to watch the other players fight it out, so it allows you to get a chance to see how other people play their characters and give you time to develop effective strategies to defeat them. A newly added Replay mode also allows you to watch and upload replays to help further determine strategies. All of the additions are great, and really do add a lot to building up SFIV as this online gaming juggernaut, stopping short of creating a form of social network within the game that could make for some very interesting stuff. Couple that with a soon to be released Tournament Mode, it’s great to see Capcom really taking the online modes seriously.

The other changes/additions aren’t as significant, but are still pretty rad. All 35 characters now have two ultra-moves instead of one (with the exception of Gen who has four!); there are new prologues and epilogues for each character in arcade mode (yet are all uniformly terrible); the car destruction and barrel busting mini-games from Street Fighter II have returned and are kinda fun to check out; and as to be expected – there’s a whole bunch of rebalancing, removing the game of its quite infamous “Ken Fighter IV” stigma.

Play through this as Cody or Guy. I assure you, the result is worth it. 

It’s actually quite hard to find any actual negative or weak elements in the game, since everything here is still fantastic or has been improved substantially; the only complaints are more nit-picky than anything else. For instance, one can look at some of the feature set of the upcoming home release of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, and see some of the great things that Arc System Works have added that would’ve been perfect here in Super Street Fighter IV; such as a tutorial mode that teaches players game concepts as well as moves, a proper storyline that’s actually half decent and not completely throwaway, and an Fight Request- esque feature (i.e. the functionality wherein you can be challenged at any point by an online player in SFIV Arcade mode) that works in all game modes. While SSFIV is still a great game, one has a feeling that there’s still more that Capcom could have added, and pray won’t be adding in a new iteration of the fighter.

Visually, it’s practically the same as vanilla Street Fighter IV. This isn’t a bad thing, because the game still looks stunning, even two years on from its original release. All the new backgrounds and character animations look fantastic and gel well within the existing backgrounds and character animations.

Cody’s ready to beat the crap out of someone.

The same goes with the aural element. Well…almost. All of the new music in the game has a much more techno/trance feel to it, and while there are some great tracks (all of the remixed tunes and some of the new music is fantastic), the rest of isn’t as great. It has a very weird 90’s style thing going to it, which doesn’t really suit the game. All the new voice acting is quite decent, though if you have an aversion to English voices where you have the option to swap, the ability to swap voice tracks individually for each character returns, and it’s just as awesome as it was in vanilla SF4.

As to be expected, Super Street Fighter IV is another solid revision of what was one of the best fighting games to date. It’s still quite accessible & familiar, and has that little smidgen of depth that all great fighters have. All the new additions and rebalancing is very welcome and appreciated, though one most wonder whether or not Capcom could have gone a little deeper and added some more defining feature sets. Be that as it may, Super Street Fighter is very heartily recommended.

The Question of Accessibility in Fighting Games

Compared to a lot of other popular genres of video games, fighting games are very unique in that they aren’t very welcoming to newcomers. Sure, once you get into the genre, you’ll find that you can bring your skills to a lot of different games and feel at home almost as soon as you starting learning a new game. But it’s the question of getting into it that proves most fascinating.

Two games that actually got me thinking a little bit of accessibility in fighting games are Tecmo’s 2005’s Dead or Alive 4, and Capcom’s 2010’s Super Street Fighter IV. At a base level, these two games couldn’t be any more different from one another, but they share the same problem – they are both quite difficult for newcomers to get into and enjoy.

Let’s begin with Dead or Alive 4. While the series is well known for having moments of ridiculous difficulty, the fourth instalment kicks it up several notches. It does help that there is a mode that allows the game to ‘drill’ the player throughout a characters moveset, the key problem here is that it falls prey to a design methodology that developer Team Ninja are well known for – making the game difficult, but if you learn how to play the game and learn the intricacies of the system, you’ll be fine.

 

Expect to see this happening. A LOT.

I say this because if you’re going into the game blind, you are going to be destroyed by the A.I. There’s no ‘easy’ mode, and you’ll need to know how to use the games counter mechanism, because the A.I knows how to use it, and will counter like crazy. Granted, the mechanic is pretty simple to understand, but the game doesn’t tell you at all about it – you have to go in to the ‘Sparring’ mode (which contains the aforementioned move drills); but even then – there is still a lot of the game’s basic concepts that isn’t exactly clear upon playing the game.

It’s sort of the same thing in Super Street Fighter IV. Admittedly, the game is a little more accessible thanks to multiple difficulty levels and a much slower pace of game and less moves to worry about; but even still, it’s not as friendly and open as it should be.

Should’ve done a focus attack there Bison. Don’t know what that is? Go read the manual. 

Again, it has a mode that drills you into playing each character – and goes a step further by even teaching the player some very useful combos. But that’s  just it – for all the additional teaching that the game does, it doesn’t go that additional step further and allow for new players to learn key gameplay concepts.

While I chose Dead or Alive 4 and Super Street Fighter IV for these examples, you could apply them to a number of other fighting games – even recently, games like BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger or Tekken 6 have nothing in the way of teaching players about gameplay concepts. While you could pass this off as saying that because they’re such long running series, they don’t need to accommodate for new players, I don’t buy that argument. I really don’t.

Example here being Sega’s 2004 fighter Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. The Virtua Fighter games are known to be one of the most deep and one of the more hardcore fighting series out there, and if anything, the one that would most benefit from a tutorial. And you know what? It has that. And it goes a little further than saying “here’s how to block, here’s how to attack”, explaining how to best play in certain scenarios, as well giving players the ability to be drilled through character movesets. In fact, it was such a great feature, that it’s omission in Virtua Fighter 5 was a huge disappointment!

Admittedly, this isn’t the training mode, but if you were in training – you’d know how to not get your arse kicked by Akira.

Though it does seem like other fighting games are slowly realizing that accessibility is a good thing – the sequel to the aforementioned Blazblue; Continuum Shift, is receiving  a tutorial mode. And of course, there are always things like YouTube or FAQ’s if you want to learn and see the base concepts of a fighting game, but it’s that little in-game help that helps just the same.

The Complexity Argument (Or Why Street Fighter III Shouldn't Be Ignored)

With the impending release of Super Street Fighter IV, there's a number of different sort of memes popping back up all over the place, specifically in various commentaries about the Street Fighter series. The most common thing I'm seeing is derision of Street Fighter III, and how it's "too complex" of a game compared to the much more simpler Street Fighter IV, or even Street Fighter II.

As someone who took the time to understand and learn how to play Street Fighter III, I find the increasing number of complaints to be somewhat annoying, and almost ignorant to a point. Admittedly, my stance is a little biased - since I adore Street Fighter III, but at the same time, it's almost ludicrous that the game gets as much undeserved crap as it gets - since it does many things that Capcom haven't done as well since or before the release of 3rd Strike. 

Specifically, let's begin with the "too complex" part that most people seem to complain most about. In particular, people cite difficulty with the parry system - wherein to parry attacks, you need to move forward just as the attack connects, negating the attack and leaving your enemy wide open. By doing this, it effectively negates projectiles (which isn't an issue, since MOST of the characters in 3rd Strike aren't projectile users), and allows you to counter pretty much every other attack, including Super Arts (which will get to in a later paragraph). 

The most common misconception about this argument is that in order to basically play the game - you NEED to know how to parry. This can't be any further from the truth. In reality, it does help if you want to take the game seriously, but you don't need to know how to parry in order to play the game. I can't do it properly, and yet, it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game. I know quite a few people who can't do it properly, and yet, they still enjoy the game. And if you want further proof that parrying doesn't ruin games - I CHALLENGE you to find someone complaining about the Just Defence system from SNK fighting games or Guard Impacting from Soul Calibur, and how it's "too complex" and ruins the game for them.

Another argument I've heard in favour of the game being "too complex, therefore it sucks" is the Super Art system. Basically, each character has three super moves, known as Super Arts. Once you pick a character, you pick one Super Art to use as your sole super move until you choose another character. 

I'm more baffled that people have found reason to even complained about this. The ability to choose Super Arts allows for different styles of gameplay, and locks you to learning only one combination - should you JUST focus on doing just that. What's so hard about locking down one super move?

I'm guessing that a lot of people deriding Street Fighter III are people who grew up and played the ever loving crap out of the various different versions of Street Fighter II. In fact, if you were to read a lot of articles and even listen to podcasts from outlets like 1UP, Gamespot, IGN etc, you'll hear a lot of praising of Street Fighter II and how the participants spent a lot of time playing the game, but stopped at III, citing that it was too complex and focused at a more hardcore audience.

Well no shit it's different. It IS a sequel after all. Were you expecting a title known as "Street Fighter III" to be as iterative as a lot of the different versions of Street Fighter II? Of course it's different. It's a sequel, a completely new entry in a long running series - you'd better damn well expect it to be different from it's predecessors. If it had been exactly the same, these would be the same people damning it.

The point of this? Go play Street Fighter III. It's one of the best fighting games ever made, and Capcom's crowning achievement as a company.

Oh Japan

There are many reasons why I love Japan, but this has got to be the most recent one. Why do I love Japan now?



Because they're the only place on earth where they'll have a TV show wherein the hosts are paid to get excited for precisely 10 seconds of gameplay footage.

Not My Game Room

So with the end of March, we saw the conclusion of Microsoft's "Block Party" promotion, as they released the not-quite arcade 'game' Game Room - effectively a launcher for a retro game service that was just launched. It's not at all like Sony's Playstation Home, as screenshots would suggest, but it's certainly more interactive and has a tonne of potential on its hands. And it's locally developed too (done by Krome Studios), so that's always nice.

And yet, I just can't get into it.

I mean, it's nothing wrong with the service itself. The emulation on the games is surprisingly good (except for the Intellivision stuff - which can't really played properly), the addition of a rewind feature is welcome, a semi-achievement system (in the form of medals) is well implemented and fun, the ability to go to other peoples arcades is a good idea - all in all, good stuff. 

Well, at least some people are enjoying Asteroids.

Sure, there is the fact that it's buggy as all hell, but that's not a shock. Stuff like not being able to purchase games initially, or even connect to the Game Room servers is annoying, but that can always be fixed over time; and if this generation has proven anything - it's not exactly a rare sight to see a patch for something be released onto a console. So you may be wondering what my problem is then? 

Well, it's the game selection itself. Rather - it's what Microsoft thinks are suitable 'nostalgic' games to go onto this service.

Initially, the games that were released comprised of stuff from the Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision and several choice Konami & Atari arcade games. In terms of names, there was stuff like Centipede, Asteroids, Jungler, Yar's Revenge, Adventure, Combat and more. All in all, respectable stuff, yet there's just one problem.

All those games? Not nostalgic to me in the slightest.

Let me put this into perspective. I was born in 1988 - my nostalgia in terms of arcades includes things like Street Fighter II, The Simpsons, Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, Daytona USA, Mortal Kombat - all these great games that were made during the last great years of the arcade. And yet, there doesn't seem to be any plans to release anything much more recent and actually playable onto the service.

And then there's the decision to kill the buzz on the product by not releasing anything until the end of April. Sure, it may be one way to get to the target of "1000 games in three years" that Microsoft are setting onto themselves, but a month? Really? Let's just hope that it isn't a regular thing and that the games 

You can theme your rooms - having Atari games in your Intellivision room and Intellivision games in your Atari room...

It bums me out because I WANT to support this. I think it's a great idea, and the framework surrounding it is awesome, but I can't justify spending money on stuff that is unplayable by today's standards, and isn't relevant to me. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one that thinks this way.

Of course, it's still early days for the service - so who knows? If it's just focusing on Microsoft's definition of nostalgia though, then I'll be getting rid of the app and going back to MAME. At least there I don't have to worry about not being able to access the service because of a bad internet connection.

How To Fail Miserably At Getting Your Point Across

So the South Australian election happened, and wonder of wonders, the Attorney General Michael Atkinson stepped down. All good to hear, yet this doesn't seem to make much progress in the whole getting an R18+ rating issue that Atkinson made himself a staunch opponent of. So until some progress happens, I guess there are people who still need to protest...

Look, I support the R18+ rating and what not. It may take ages before it actually happens, but I do believe that it should happen. I'm not alone in this belief, and it's great to see people actually protesting it in various cities around the country. That being said though, there's a fine line between protesting and challenging what the government has ruled, and just being incredibly fucking stupid and not only completing missing the point of protesting, but also doing harm to the cause as well.

Case in point: The Epic Zombie Marchmarch

Now, this isn't a new thing - flashmobs of Zombies walking the streets in Sydney are kinda common (YouTube's proved that). Usually, it's just for shits and giggles - people doing it to freak out other people. No real moral cause or belief funding it, it's just for the lulz. I can get behind that, but when you're dealing in a political matter, I can't get behind it. Not at all.

The group behind this, Aus Gamers United, mention this little bit on their Facebook group about who they are and why they're for the R18+ rating :

Right now, there is no R18+ rating for digital media in Australia, whatsoever. And anything that would otherwise qualify for such a rating is refused classification and denied release in this fine country of ours.

That isn't exactly true. There have been plenty of games that should be considered R-rated but have passed through as MA15+. But that's more semnatic than anything else.

This is a gross violation of civil liberties as adults, that we are refused a Mature rating for what is Mature content.

Now this sentence I have a problem with. And it's one word that falls against it. Take a wild guess what it is.

Thats right - adults.

They're perfectly right though. As an adult, I should be allowed to peruse what I want and not have it censored of refused classification thanks to rulings from the government that are archaic and are being held back due to a politician that himself isn't an idol of moral perfection. That's perfectly true. Yet as adults - the same people whom want this to happen, you believe that the only way of getting your point across is to dress up as zombies?

I'm sorry. But as an adult, I don't see how dressing up as a zombie gets the point across that our civil liberties are being violated.

Nevermind the fact that the whole zombie trend has long stopped being popular and now becoming increasingly annoying whenever it gets shown in media, but do these people not worry about people taking you seriously? They don't mind that people are going to see these gamers as freaks and potentially hold onto the view that all gamers care about are violence and just want an R18+ rating for more violence?

"But Jamie!" I hear you ask, "these people don't want to be boring and serious like the politicians they fervently despise - they want to protest their beliefs in a fun, colourful manner!" And that's perfectly fine, if there wasn't a political agenda behind this. I'm all for people trolling other people in real life, but when you're doing this to achieve a point, a serious one at that matter, I can't just believe that someone thought that this is actually a good idea.

Do you remember that similar rally that happened last year? Y'know, the one where retailer GameTraders were supporting people protesting by cosplaying? Oh, wait - that's right. It didn't happen! GameTraders had enough sense to realize that the point wouldn't be taken seriously when people would be dressing up as various video game characters. And it's amazing why the 1,000+ people taking part in this event don't realize it.

Honestly, if you're taking part in this rally - I'm not going to stop you. But consider this. You're potentially doing more damage to the issue and embarassment to the people who want to support this issue in a normal manner.

Heavy Rain (PS3) Review

NOTE: Heavy Rain is a very interesting game, if only because a lot of the game can be very easily spoiled. That being said though, this review only contains information that has been made publically known and should not ruin the experience for players. 

There are some fine lines defining whether or not a game is a series of actions and interactions where everything you do has an impact on the game, or just playing through one long sequence of unskippable events, feeling more like a movie than anything else. This is the dilemma surrounding the latest release by Sony and developer Quantic Dream’s latest title – the PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain. And for a game that’s been in the works for ages, it’s finally good that the wait was worth it. Somewhat. 

Heavy Rain prides itself on being “Interactive Drama”, wherein a more traditional gaming experience is eschewed in favour of a much slower experience. This is a game that lives and breathes cinematic atmosphere – feeling at times like a very high quality crime drama. The story follows the lives of four individuals whom are after the one person – the mysterious Origami Killer, whose modius operandi is to kidnap young boys, drown them in rainwater (hence, the Heavy Rain) and places the corpses on a wasteland, with flowers and an origami figure. The shit really hits the fan when the son of one of the playable characters goes missing, as they’re put through the paces to learn just how far the character would go to save him; and forms a crucial part of the plot.

Each of the four playable characters aren’t exactly your standard game characters either – with each suffering from various problems and aren’t exactly pleasant to be around; such as architect Ethan – who after the death of one of his sons and divorce is starting to lose grip on reality, or FBI agent Norman, whom is struggling to deal with a drug addiction.

Much like with Quantic Dreams previous game, Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit (depending on where you live in the world), the game plays out via gratitutious use of quick time events and some minor forms of other interaction, mostly in the form of moving your character around the scene, picking up items, talking to other characters and so on.

There’s a joke here about the woman getting soaked by something. But I’ll leave you to guess that for yourselves.

But what really makes Heavy Rain stand out is how progression is handled. The game never stops for anything – time is always moving, so you’ll constantly need to make snap decisions and take advantage of the little time you have. Even things like character death don’t impact the plot – if any of the four characters die, the game doesn’t stop and forces you to reload, and it keeps going. The same goes with the Quick Time Events. They’re handled in such a unique way that it never really feels forced or tired, but fascinating. Best of all, there’s almost no penalty for failing most of them – save for the few occasions where you can kill characters.

That being said though, the game does have a few key problems with it. For starters, the game is a technical mess. Loading times can be exceedingly long, the audio drops out completely at times (albeit briefly), character animations define the laws of physics and much more. Then there are times when the game crashes, refuses to load and much more. Even with a 226MB patch as a mandatory download, it manages to be staggering at how glitch the game is.

Oh hi. I was the first character ever shown for Heavy Rain back in 2006 as a test character. And guess what? I’m still in the game!

As well as that, the story itself has its problems. While the experience overall is great, there are moments in the game where you’re constantly questioning to their existence. There are moments that are absolutely pointless to the overall plot, and feel utterly stupid to be playing. As well as that, the story makes some use of some rather cheap storytelling mechanics and pulls off some weak twists. It does tend to derail the story, but thankfully, doesn’t totally kill the experience.

Visually, the game ranges from tipping the uncanny valley to looking great. The character models in particular look fantastic, though there are moments where they’d fit in well in the Uncanny Valley. The animation on all the characters is great, but the facial animation can sometimes lead to some weird mouth movements that make for a better comedy than a serious scene. That being said though – the environments you move around in are jaw droppingly beautiful, fitting in well with the somewhat noir atmosphere going on. And yes, there’s a lot of great looking rain.

The same thing can be said of the sound – its equal parts amazing and equal parts unintentionally hilarious. The voice acting is mostly solid, though there are periods where the mostly European cast drop out of their American accents and back into tinges of their regular ones, or don’t even try to be American. That, and there’s quite a bit of weak delivery at times. That being said though, the music is fantastic, and does wonders to compliment the atmosphere the game is trying to present.

Overall, Heavy Rain is a unique experience that begs to be tried out, with some of the best music and visuals you’re bound to experience in a video game. Definitely worth it – especially if you’re after something new.