The Lair of the Monkey

Not really illegal nor probably that effective (I’d guess, though it does have caffeine to keep you awake during those mammoth Counter Strike sessions) this is a new food supplement to improve your gaming performance.  Personally, I think you’d just be better off staying away from the pizza and coke and making sure you take regular rest breaks.  Here’s the ingredients list courtesy of Kotaku:

1. L-Glutamine 100,00 mg
2. L-Tyrosine 100,00 mg
3. Betain 50,00 mg
4. Vitamin C 75,00 mg
5. Vitamin E 10,00 mg
6. Niacin 18,00 mg
7. Selenium 30,00 µg
8. Calcium 6,00 mg
9. Vitamin B6 2,00 mg
10. Vitamin B2 1,60 mg
11. Vitamin B1 1,40 mg
12. Vitamin B12 1,00 µg
13. Folic Acid 200,00 µg
14. Biotin 150,00 µg
15. Caffeine 5,00 mg
16. Soyalecithin 250,00 mg

As a games blog based in the UK, I try to help you guys out where I can.  If you want something to help your concentration then try to eat a balanced meal, take breaks every 45 minutes and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.  Beyond that, make sure to be well rested before your major tournament…

Here’s a pic taken from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  It’s clearly one of the members of the ‘Beauty and the Beast‘ unit from the forthcoming PS3 game, but I don’t have any info yet.  If you do, give me some!  Importantly, the game is shaping up to be one of the best MGS games ever and I can’t wait to see more about it.

Old Snake as he is now (it’s set in 2014) must once again battle the forces of evil as Liquid Ocelot tries to start a military coup in the US.  He’ll need all the help he can get with Snake after him - somehow I think even with the tough bosses on show he might have some problems…

Computer and Video Games has reported on what Boll had to say regarding gamers slating his movies.  His comments were along the lines of:

“what were you expecting, Schindler’s List” and “A lot of games have no story“.

Now what I have to ask is, if you’re aware that movies are a media based on story, then why on Earth would you bother to use games that have none?  To date, almost all of Boll’s bad films (that’s all of his films really) have been based on action-led games.  Frankly, why does he keep choosing them as his subject matter then?  Okay, this interview is at least honest - but it makes him sound rather more stupid than I even thought he was in the first place.

One of the best success stories for game to film conversion has been Silent Hill.  Why is that?  Well I contend that the main focus of the game is not action but atmosphere.  Atmosphere is used to evoke emotion.  Therefore, it creates a far more profound link into the game - but it also gives something much greater to build upon when it came to creating a new film (and possibly franchise) from scratch.

Well, here’s the latest chart.  Frankly, there’s nothing that interesting that’s happening out there at the moment - in fact we’ve even seen the re-emergence of Brain Training back into the charts.  Oh well, never mind.  Still, Burnout Paradise remains fun and Super Mario Galaxy is a great game, so people aren’t buying rubbish.

Burnout Paradise
Xbox 360

Dr Kawashimas Brain Training - How old is your Brain?
Nintendo DS

It doesn’t make it any less interesting for this UK games blog!  Apparently Fox ran a story which was essentially a bunch of lies.  They said:

• Mass Effect features full frontal digital nudity
• Players can engage in graphic sex
• The game is being marketed toward kids and teenagers

Apart from none of these things being true, does Fox really think that they can get away with this sort of slander?  As EA correctly points out, the people who worked on this game are, well, people too.  They have lives and probably kids of their own no doubt.  So to hear that the product they made (and took years to finish) is disturbingly adult but being marketed toward children is just plain unfair.  This criticism is not on.  Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 is, in my mind, clearly a game for adults.  As I covered in my recent Gadzooki post, it deals with some heavy issues.  As usual, this just seems to be a ‘lets jump on the bandwagon’ moment from the media.

Am I crazy, or should those who want to waste their money purchase a Gears of War Markus figure be locked up?  I know, gamer stereotypes etc, but are these figures really benefitting society in any way?  In fact, if you like Gears of War so much, how come you can actually get off the couch to pick up your card and pay good money for these things?  Notice they’re marked as ‘adult‘ toys.  They don’t look like any adult toys I’ve seen.  Maybe they’re for kids.  Then again if you let your kid play Gears of War on the Xbox 360 not only are you a bad parent but you’re a little bit naive too.  After all - it scars kids for life and turns them into crazed zombies/serial killers/religious nuts/problem adults.

Well, what can I say.  I’ve finally joined the HD revolution.  Oh my word, it was worth the £18 I forked out for the VGA cable to use with my particular TV.  So what makes it so good?  Well:

• Graphics are sharper
• The games are clearer
• It is amazing how different it makes the experience

Given how much difference it seems to make, I’m still surprised that Nintendo didn’t bother to use HD for the Wii.  It seems to make so much sense for those who have it, and if you don’t, it’s not like your losing out.

Check out my article over at Gadzooki; I explore the top 3 sequels on consoles this year along with my feelings toward the games-with-a-number…

Spore is a long-awaited PC game from Will Wright - creator of The Sims.  You control an epic journey that begins at the origins of life and spans the existence of creation all the way through to the development of civilization and technology to traverse the universe.  The world is lush and populated - though at first it begins with a single amoeba which you can develop in ways that you see fit.

Hopefully, the flexible tools for ‘creating’ will be as simple as they say, as I can imagine that a game of this customisation has potential to get rather complicated.  The idea of moulding your own personal world with flora, fauna creatures and even vehicles however sounds just too good to be true.

Kotaku has reported that it’ll be coming to the (dreaded) Mac too - though I wouldn’t hold your breath for that one.  The PC version after all keeps geting moved back as it is… 

Over at Gaming Insider there’s an interesting post.  Basically, the blame of hype should be put on gamers, not on those who market the products…

‘The way I see it, the sort of reaction “Assassin’s Creed” had to suffer stems from the instinctive distrust that people, and especially gamers, have towards upfront marketing. Roundabout marketing like TV ads, product tie-ins, and the like seem to slide under the radar, but when a game developer says something about a game, they can’t possibly be sincere.’ 

I’m not sure I buy this argument.  Assassin’s Creed was marketed in an honest way.  Ms Raymond etc came out, told us what the game was about and then vanished.  I’m not quite sure what people were expecting from the game, but what we were shown is pretty much what we got.  I think the problem lies more with how new titles are accepted (or not) by the gaming public.  This surely emphasizes to publishers that sequels are ’safe’ and new IP’s are not.

I actually quite like to think of gamers as a bit smarter than the ’sit-and-watch-a-soap’ brigade, but hell, maybe I have it wrong.  Maybe they are the vile tools of the devil that the media likes to make them out to be.  Then again, Viva Pinata never hurt anyone did it…