The Lair of the Monkey

The Nintendo DS is a very versatile (if painful to use at times) machine, capable of pretty impressive visuals and sound, such as the cut scenes from Metroid Prime: Hunters.  However, where it really shines is core gameplay as I’ve mentioned before.

Don’t get Wii - whoops, I mean me - Wii comes later.  The DS is nice.  Remember the press when the PSPS came out though?  Lots of people suggesting the DS is childish and yet it has sold over 26 million units worldwide.  Ironically, three quarters of the people I know who have one are over 18.  Regardless, the gameplay on the DS is cool thanks to the easy to grasp (forgive the second pun) stylus-touch-screen interface.  This brings me neatly to the games I play.

On my various formats, my gaming habits are segmented.  For instance, I tend to play FPS games (as well as RTS and RPG’s) on my PC, whilst my consoles are for ‘arcade style’ games.  I’m pretty sure that’s a redundant term now given the lack of arcades but you get the idea.  Stuff like racers, beat-em-ups and old school shooters belong on consoles for me, as I’m lucky enough to have a decent gaming rig as well as consoles.

So, that’s my segmented gaming habit.  Of course, choosing one console or another (even if it is trendy to own more than one in the current climate) tends to dictate the games you have access to anyway.  For instance, it’s very unlikely you’ll ever see Mario or Zelda more beyond Nintendo consoles, even if they own nowhere near the market penetration they used to have.

Finally - if you’re still with me here - what can we expect to see on the Wii, given the obvious tactile similarity/control interface of the Nintendo DS?  Well, here’s a list of the top five selling DS games:

Brain Training
Nintendogs
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Animal Crossing: Wide World
Wario Ware: Touched

As you can see, they all enjoy the use of - to some degree - the unique input of the touch screen.  Obvious parallels can be drawn to the Wii wand-and-nunchuck setup.  Lets have a look at what we expect to have as the top five list of Wii games come Christmas here in the UK:

Trauma Center
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Red Steel
Super Mario Galaxy

There’s a duplication that’s quickly apparent - but it’s Trauma Center and that’s great so we’ll not quibble.  There’s definitely scope to impress from the list if you ask me.  More importantly, as much as the Wii has a lower spec than the other nex-gen consoles and a stupid name to boot, I can’t help but see a comparison once again of the DS and the PSP.  Whilst I haven’t preordered my Wii yet, I know four people who have.  Lets see what the future holds…

You’ll notice that I haven’t reviewed Battlefield 2142 yet - nor am I going to.  There’s a few reasons for that, including the fact that I simply have no time to play it at the moment (I’ll tell you what I am playing in a couple of days).  Another reason is how totally buggy the game seems to be, including the various problems it has had with a windows security update.  Anyway, take a look at Heartless Gamer for more info.

The game is set in the same New York City as the movies, from the time period of the mid-forties to the mid-fifties.  You play as a mobster of your creation, gaining areas of control, businesses to racketeer and more.  You can use loyalty/respect or fear to control the streets, as well as using your allies to help in certain situations.

The mechanics of the game are okay, starting out promisingly with quite a decent editor to create your character.  It’s somewhat of a letdown after that though, with a clunky control system and a rather turgid basic gameplay experience.  However, for a film license it holds up not too badly, with reasonable graphics and a good showing based on a popular license.

Obviously, there are certain parallels to be drawn in the game, what with your driving around, shooting and of course using the dough.  So naturally enough it’s fair to mention the one and only GTA.  This, I believe, is where licensed games fall down.  Whilst you have a storyline and a setting conducive to a movie, it doesn’t always translate well to a game.

In this case however, I’d say that The Godfather doesn’t do too bad a job.  If you want to be in the world of Luca Brazzi et al and find out how to run your racketteering trade/illegal gambling ring then there’s worse places than this game.  However, I feel let down by the fact that they could do no better than produce what amounts to an incredibly similar experience of a better game.

When this game suddenly appeared (at least that’s what it seemed to do for me) it was touted as being somewhere between Oblivion and Half Life 2 - essentially having the freedom of the former with a tight storyline and great scripting of the latter.  Unfortunately, the execution left a little to be desired.  I’m not asking for the fantasy world to be completely redone, but what you’ve got here is your first person action RPG, with all the usual elements - swords and sorcery, orcs, stealth (ubiquitous in all games these days) etc etc.  One of the biggest letdowns is the overemphasis on combat.  This game likes to do heavy repetitive combat in such a way that by the end of it you’ll be thinking ‘this is a bit of a slog’.

Generally, the game performs okay, however the numerous technical problems that seemed to plague the game on my system (Gamespot.com also notes this) kind of got in the way.  There’s nothing worse than being part way through ANY game and then having a crash to Windows, regardless of how far you are through.  The story isn’t up to much - however neither was Oblivion’s.  That is, however, a pretty revolutionary game, unlike Dark Messiah.  That being the case, if you haven’t played Oblivion already, get that.  It is pretty much ‘best in class’ as far as first person RPG’s go.

Legends is a new entry to the Stronghold series, offering a skirmish mode, 24 missions, 3 campaigns and a map editor.  Unlike Stronghold 2 (which featured more simulation gameplay styles), Legends plays very much like your ’standard’ RTS.  Get your resources, control the action/choke points, and stop those nasty boars, werewolves etc invading your base.  It is evident that the AI is much improved from the previous games and as such the game provides a nice challenge.  The visuals have also had an overhaul, however the game still looks dated.  If you’re a fan of the fantasy RTS genre it may be worth a look.  Otherwise, your money may be better spent elsewhere.

I’m sure that you may have seen this before, but take a look at this.  50 of the funniest game names ever.  There really was a game for the Gizmondo called ‘Sticky Balls’.  Oh my lord…

Ikaruga originally began life on - a home console at least - of the fated Dreamcast.  However, this was actually a port of the arcade cabinet.  Put very simply, the game is a totally retro vertical shooter.  As you can see from the title, I’m referring to the GameCube port which was done a few years ago, rather than the Dreamcast version.  However, they are to all intents and purposes pretty similar.  As a sequel of sorts to Radiant Silvergun, the game is pretty damn hot.  For those of you who don’t know what Radiant Silvergun is, you’ve missed a treat.  The dev studio responsible for Ikaruga is of course the now very famous Treasure - thanks to their high calibre of shooters in the old-school sense.

So, lets see about Ikaruga then.  Well, frankly, it’s one of those superior games that is easy to pick up and play, but incredibly difficult to master.  As such, it retains a certain element of addictiveness to it.  You control one of two ships, which allows you to control whether you have a white or a black shield.  This can be changed at will during gameplay.  White bullets are absorbed by the white shield, black by the black one.  Simple huh?  Well yes, it is.  Until of course you see that you bust enemies up then the opposite colour comes out and all manner of madness.  In the later levels you’ll see a mix of both white and black enemies all over the screen, so what do you do? 

Throw in the fact that the opposite colour damages the enemies faster, whilst the same colour brings the same bullets to absorb and you have quite a complex game.  Just to reiterate, the game is old school in a big style.  That being the case, you’ll find that enemies appear in certain places at certain times (with very few exceptions) which allows you to memorise the game patterns.  Bearing that in mind, that brings you to the way in which you earn a high score in the hopes of being on the board (I was for a very short time 49th best in the world with a pretty decent high score).  Basically you are awarded chains on your way through the level.

One chain consists of three enemies of the same colour.  In other words, 3 white enemies gives you a chain.  You can then follow it with a chain of any other colour, up to the maximum which is about 49 or 50.  Another thing to note about Ikaruga are definitely the incredible level designs, with good levels of detail on the enemies and the bullets etc when the game becomes complex in the later stages.  Overall, for those who missed it on the Dreamcast, you simply must pick this up for the GC before it goes forever.  Classic gameplay.

Oh yeah, just before I round up the view: I simply must mention the fact that Ikaruga was made to be played on a plsama TV, turned on the end.  This allows the screen to be much taller than it is wide - and bear in mind that the game is played best (as it is a vertical shooter) in this mode.  However, if you’re prepared to put up with the borders on the screen I really wouldn’t let this concern you too much.  Anyway, enough talk - I’m off to go and remember some attack patterns!

I’ve got a new post at Gadzooki - this time on ads in computer games.  Have you ever seen an ad that looked out of place, strange or just crap?  Games are now considered a viable medium to hit certain target segments - namely everything from young teens up to successful 20 something’s in a career job.  Take a look and see the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ads in games.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so I thought it was about time.  This week, I’ve been playing a few different things.  Firstly, I’ve decided to get EVERY car in Forza on career mode.  That means not selling any to get a quick buck, and ensuring I don’t mod too many into the wrong category (though you can knock them down by reverting to class gear if you must).  This will naturally take me a while, but I’m enjoying every minute of this hard but genuinely fun racing simulator.  It’s also helping me with my next car purchase, which might be soon.

I’ve also been playing some Oblivion, as noted, with a new character.  Anyway, I’ll not dwell on that seeing as I’ve already covered it.  Psychonauts has made a resurgence on my Xbox, but sadly only for five minutes.  Unfortunately I had to go out pretty much just after starting my game, so I’m no further forward - and still stuck in the Sarge’s nightmare to boot.  Not fun at all.  Ikaruga saw a brief mention, but only to see if I was still any good.  I’m not.

On another note, I HAVEN’T been playing FIFA - I was too crap at it to continue, but maybe one day when I have more money than time I can sit and get better at it.  I still haven’t finished The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - but I got stuck and swiftly bored with it.  I might be getting Condemned: Criminal Origins (wow, that’s two games with colons in the title!) but I watched that being played right to the end so I haven’t decided if that’ll go on the playlist or not.  FEAR might be arriving on my PC, but lets wait and find out.  My birthday is coming up so a new game might be the order of the day.  Now lets see…

… of course, it might be a 360 that comes along instead.  I just can’t decide on whether to get that or wait for the Wii.  I really want to see that being played first, and ideally play it myself, but there we are.  So that’s the round-up for this week, and it isn’t going to change until at least Friday - when the budget might stretch to that new game.

Well, Fiona Tanner is now made - and what a beaut she is, just look at her!

Yes, I’ve finally gotten around to getting a few pics of my new character, and it’s obvious she’s much tougher than… erm… what’s his name.  Anyway, she’s hard as nails.  I can’t believe how much difference it makes to be skilled in magic and more importantly weapons.  Fiona is handy with a sword and a shield, as she’s a Spellsword.  This also means she can fry bad guys with some cool spells.  I made her a dark elf too so I could play with the ancestor spirit.  Not much fun, but cool.  One of the weird things I’ve done so far is trying to outrun it - perfectly possible so keep an eye out if you’re relying on it keeping you alive!

One of the other weird things I’ve been doing now that I’ve escaped from that first dungeon is trying to woo the male characters by wandering around half naked.  Sadly it seems to have little to no effect, and the stroppy people of Cyrodil just wander off as if I’m fully clothed.  I’ve also taken to having a ‘town outfit’ consisting of a silk top and a brown skirt, very fetching as any lady will tell you!  Well anyway, here’s my combat outfit…

Yes, it’s nice and small so all of you who are younger aren’t scarred for life looking at a bikini clad female game character.  Anyway, returning back to the adventures… The first port of call was selling all of the junk that Jauffrey tries to give you.  I’ve decided to mostly stay away from melee weapons such as bows this time round, and instead concentrating on my magic.  I guess it’s realistic but it would sure make the game easier if I could carry as much as I want.  Regardless, I took my horse on a run around a few hills, discovering a few new towers etc on the way.

One of the good things about my previous character was that he could withstand a pretty decent fall, as his acrobatics skill was very high.  Not so with poor Fiona.  I dragged her up to the top of a tower, pressed ‘r’ to put it into third person view, and then let her fly off the top of the parapet.  Sadly she plummeted like a stone, before smashing on the ground below.  I was aiming for the horse, though sadly I was a little bit off.  I can’t decide whether to initiate her into the blades or not - but I probably won’t.  I’m going to instead aim to complete the mages guild things, as I failed to do so last time.  I’ve got off to a cracking start with alchemy though, making some truly rubbish potions such as ‘5 extra fatigue for 3 seconds’ or the slightly better (but not much) poison variant of said potion.

Finally, I’m aiming to complete it this time round, but not without doing some quirky things to try and generally annoy people in the world of Cyrodil (is that possible when they’re virtual?), so I’ve taken to leaving a pair of shoes outside each Castle - no-one seems to have fallen yet, oh well.  Update to follow, I’m off now to go and jump off another tower whilst trying to land in the saddle!