The Lair of the Monkey

After who knows how many hours, I have managed to finally complete The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC.  It has been a great adventure and I’ve enjoyed most of it.  One of the things that was particularly special was the ending.  It was extremely cinematic and provided a brilliant conclusion to a great gaming experience.
The ending got me thinking about how games in general wrap things up.   At the start of gaming history (with games like Space Invaders and Pong) there was never an end.  You got a ‘GAME OVER‘ screen and that’s it.  As things moved on, you might get a little animation where you see the hero rescuing the princess.  As we move to another generation, we have the cut scene.

Loathed and loved in equal measure, these provided a CG sequence revealing the story.  Nowadays, we have the cut scene using in game graphics.  For me, this is definitely better.  The game world and overall experience isn’t broken this way.  You’re never ‘taken out of the game’ using this plot device.  As stories become more complex in games (and I’m sure this is how things will develop) we’ll see better stories being told in this seamless way.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Xbox 360

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
PlayStation 3

Metroid Prime 3 - Corruption
Nintendo Wii

Wii Play - Includes Wii Remote
Nintendo Wii

The Witcher
PC

Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
PC

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
PlayStation 2

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (DVD ROM)
PC

Football Manager 2008
PC

Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
Xbox 360

So have we got anything new and interesting in there? Well (gasp!) there’s two versions of Pro Evo at the top. What can you do. There’s no accounting for taste; or popularity for that matter. Going from the top to the very bottom, Half Life 2: The Orange Box has town criers across the land shouting its’ brilliance. I, on the other hand, will say MEH. Okay, Portal is pretty good, but have you played Half Life 2 in a while? I hadn’t and I was shocked at how dull it was.

Okay you had the physics and you could argue they are now at another level, but I just hate the way in which Valve attempt to hamfistedly tell the story. The various ‘Episodes’ might explain more but you won’t find me playing them. On a similar note, everyone I’ve spoken to who has played it (and the brief five minutes I got) have commented on how brilliant Portal is. Shame on you Valve for being trumped in the originality stakes by some students. And for those who did create Portal, a thorough well done.

I’m not too interested in the Football Manager games so we’ll skip those and go right to The Witcher. Not that much of a role playing game I’m afraid, as you don’t create your character (you’re always Geralt) or have that many customisation options. The Elder Scrolls it ain’t. However, there is a fun world to play in and a good story there, so arguably it’s more of a roleplayer than some of the other ‘gems’ of the genre.

I haven’t played Metroid Prime 3 yet so let me point you in the direction of a decent review.

Just so you don’t just think I cover games on this computer and video games blog…

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/machinima/ is where you can find info…

12 - 14 October 2007
De Montfort University Campus Centre
Leicester, UK

Machinima (pronounced ma-shin-i-ma). Making movies with videogames, the word being an amalgamation of machine cinema. A fusion of film-making and gaming, which is increasingly being used as one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways of creating animation, has a rapidly growing following, fuelled in part by the enhanced visual quality of many of the most popular computer games.

It’s certainly worth taking a look at the site as it has a lot of information on this growing artistic format.  I can certainly recommend it and I have a growing machinima collection alongside my more mainstream prints, photographs and other art.  One of the things I’ve found so interesting recently is how people are pushing the boundaries - whether it’s with the (yes I know it’s been out ages) almost talk-show like Red vs Blue or the more narrative based (and frankly brilliant) The Snow Witch.  Go take a look (on youtube), and enjoy.

Over at the BBC, they have the top five pics for you as well.  Follow the link to view.

I’m still looking for a new PC RPG that I can get my teeth into.  Neverwinter Nights 2 still has my eye due to my being in love with the original (still).  It was, and is, an amazingly solid RPG for the PC, possibly one of the best ever, and is fantastically so well held together.  It is of course different to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (which I’m so close to completing it’s not worth mentioning) but nonetheless is a great gaming experience that I can heartily recommend.  So, what do they say about Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2)?

No, not on development. Yes, it’s still a dull(ish) standard platformer. Nope, they’ve spent all that cash on the PS3 iteration’s ADVERTISING. Enjoy the in-game footage folks, then don’t buy it. That’s my suggestion. Then maybe we’ll actually see some new IP’s worth buying and playing. I’m sick of the same stuff being churned out. Can you tell yet?

Here’s the latest chart for this week, including formats:

Football Manager 2008
PC

FIFA 08
Nintendo Wii

Bizzarely, the saga of Manhunt 2 and the appeal of by Rockstar Games continues.  I have no idea why the ‘bleakness and callousness of tone’ is a reason for rejecting the game.  Haven’t they played Silent Hill?  Okay, it might not be callous, but it’s certainly pretty bleak.  How about such films as Hostel?  Callous, bleak, nasty, gratuitous and much more.  Yet it received a release.  Lets not even talk about the PS2 and Wii graphics.  Of course, I haven’t yet played the game.  I’d be surprised though if it’s all that shocking, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was all that bad!

A Sony spokesperson has said:

“Our offering in the UK marketplace for Christmas are the two SKUs announced on Friday, but as the 60GB stock is depleted the £299 40GB SKU will be the only version available going forward. The 40GB machine represents all the power and potential of PlayStation 3 at a very compelling price…The only functionality that is being removed is backwards compatibility–and this is because we believe this less important now than when we launched–as there will be 65 PS3 games available by Christmas.”

Yes, that’s the graphic for the cover of Devil May Cry 4.  This game should be good.  Regardless, you can really tell that’s very definitely Japanese.  Just look at the hair on that guy.  In fact, just look, yes that is a guy!

Over at C&VG there’s reports of a certain game, Halo 3 on the Xbox 360, making more than $300m in sales.  That’s a lot of money, especially givne that the console is not by any means winning the race (as far as I know that honour of somewhat dubious merit goes to the Wii, still).  So, is it all that?  Well given that I’ve stayed away from it thus far, I can’t tell you.  Everywhere else seems to suggest it is though, so maybe I should go and play it.  On the other hand… I do need a tv to do that, and as I you can see from my article over at Gadzooki, I haven’t got one at the moment.