The Lair of the Monkey

The regulars around this here computer games blog will be aware I enjoy my horror - so this next one probably isn’t a surprise for them!  For those of you who didn’t know, Clive Barker has a new game on the way.  Due for release on 26/10/07, Clive Barker’s Jericho is sure to be a frightfest with some interesting gameplay elements.  It boils down to you being in control (in FPS style) of a contingent of special forces who arrive at a temple that arrives out of nowhere in the Middle East.  You are sent there to investigate.  Naturally, your forces are a bit special too and you’ll be able to switch characters on the fly.  Enjoy the screenies and here’s hoping it lives up to Undying.

Saved the best till last didn’t I?  Anyway, Jericho should be hitting all manner of formats such as the PS3, Xbox360 and PC on 26/10/07 - so make sure to set a date in your diary for… FEAR!  Corny, but cmon, that last zombie guy is pretty scary right?

As you can see from the lovely packshot, Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 is finally out.  No, I won’t be buying it.  Well, not until I get paid.  And then it’s a ‘I might buy it but probably won’t’.  I’ve never been into the Halo franchise much, but lets see what play.com has to say about it:

Now, you don’t tend to come here to just blithely nod at everything I say.  Not least, I’m supposing, because I have some ‘interesting‘ opinions at times.  However, this one is probably the one that will make more than a few people dislike me/think I’m mad or whatever.  I’ve played a decent amount of Bioshock on the Xbox 360 and I can honestly say I found it quite dull.  The start was interesting, but once you got over the initial fun of the plasmids then you found a game that was, well, nex-gen in graphics yet two gens ago in gameplay terms.

Let me clarify this.  Bioshock is a bogstandard FPS with some interesting features.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It is not an Oblivion beater, in fact it’s nowhere close.  It has many repetitive elements, including the many fights you’ll have with the ‘Big Daddies‘ and trying to get all the ‘Little Sisters‘.  You’ll run and gun, you’ll fire electric plasmids and have toughness, but you won’t be amazed outside of the gameworld at what’s going on.  On a positive though, the gameworld is very well crafted.

So, what would I give it out of ten?  Well I don’t normally do this but I’ll say an 8/10.  The reason for such a high score is that Bioshock has been simply everywhere - and that can only be good for gaming.  Certainly, it’s better than everyone just having a Wii and thinking that is the be all and end all of gaming.

It has been confirmed that the following will be released: Rez HD, Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ikaruga.  Rez HD and Ikaruga (I will remind you all I was at one point 49th best in the world!) will come to Xbox Live, whilst Ninja Gaiden 2 will of course be a full commercial release.  As Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox was one of my favourite games then I hope the sequel won’t dissappoint.  After seeing the update on the PS3, I’m even more excited to play what should be a truly definitive classic of this generation that isn’t the slightly dull Bioshock.

Here’s some info on the game, from www.gameplay.com:

“Emotionally charged, stunningly beautiful and delivering unprecedented dramatic character performance, Heavenly Sword showcases the power of PLAYSTATION 3. A dramatic tale of revenge sees Nariko, a fiery red-haired heroine embark on a quest for vengeance against an invading King and his army. The story builds around the ancient Heavenly Sword which once belonged to a powerful deity. It can never be wielded by a mortal without it draining their life-force, killing them within hours.

Andy Serkis, the world’s leading CG actor, famous for his roles as Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and Kong in “King Kong”, was heavily involved in the creative process. As well as starring in Heavenly Sword as the villain, King Botan, Andy was a major contributor to the character development, writing, casting, directing and performance capture for the PLAYSTATION 3 game.”

N.B. - Gamespot gave it 8/10, with the main complaint being that it’s far too short.

Hello guys and gals - apologies for the delay in any sort of update.  I’ve had numerous problems with my computer, not least of which was the horrendous spyware that managed to find itself on there.  This has meant I haven’t been able to use the net securely, or indeed play games on my lovely laptop.  Well, this has all changed after an (infuriatingly long) reinstall of everything.  I’m also going up to 2gig of ram so that should help.  Anyway, I’ve got a couple of short updates for today with some longer ones to follow in the very near future.

(N.B. this is the second part of this article at LOTM)

Now that we’ve looked at being immersed in a game, lets look at being immersed in a gameworld.  Half Life was my original experience of this.  His lack of speech apart, Gordon Freeman’s world was filled with characters and scenes that were completely believeable.  There were few things contained within that pulled you out of the experience.

F.E.A.R. was another one.  Although it wasn’t very deep, the set pieces were scripted and designed in such a way that I really did - much like every other player - feel the fear.

Arguably the daddy of immersive single player games, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion set the bar for me.  There weren’t many set pieces (until you started going through the quests that is) but the world was huge.  The sense of freedom coupled with obvious care and attention to detail resulted in a world that was immersive and simply breathtaking.

Online has never really excited me as an immersive game world, simply because the idea of an MMORPG is such a misnomer - or at least the iterations we have seen so far are.  No-one actually applies the principle.  No-one actually roleplays.  A mate of mine told me they did in some MUD’s he played, but poor 2D graphics (or just text in some cases) does not really draw you into the world.

I guess really the bottom line here is exposition.  Older games did not have the capacity to create a compelling, immersive gameworld.  Instead, they gave you a scenario, a mission - maybe a high score to reach.  Where we go next is anyone’s guess, but further immersion into these virtual worlds is a given…