The Lair of the Monkey

If you like comedy takes on video games, then look no further than this edition of Stolen Pixels.  It pokes fun at the ‘Perk’ system featured in Fallout 3.  The ‘less crashes’ perk certainly gets my vote, as I’m still having problems with the game.  Most recently, Dad and Prof Li turned blue, apart from their heads, which turned a decidedly zombie-ish green.  Horrifying.  Simply horrifying.

There’s no doubt that little Flash games are brilliant.  You can have a quick bash of them during your lunch break, or you can use them to unwind when you get home, safe in the knowledge that they won’t overly tax you.  Robo-Evolution is a little gem of the genre, where you have to collect various powerups to create the ultimate robot.  Bear in mind there are only a couple of levels, but your robot can start out life as any of these items:

• Egg
• Flower
• Pear
• Lips
• Deep-fried prawn

So, all very strange, mysterious and very Japanese.  I love it.  Go play Robo-Evolution now!

9/10
Whichever system you buy Fallout 3 on, believe the hype.  I never normally say that, but this is truly an epic game in a number of ways…ranging from the many ways in which you can choose how to play the game all the way through to the superb atmosphere provided throughout.  In a different style to my normal reviews, I thought we’d break it down into the component elements:

Graphics
Fallout 3 uses the same engine as The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (Bethesda’s other masterpiece), and it shows.  Huge vistas are shown before you, with crumbling landscapes, all destroyed by-ways and all manner of interesting buildings just waiting for you to navigate to.  Perhaps one of the most notable areas of improvement however are the character models.  The facial detail is certainly improved.

Does it look good by today’s standards?  Oh yeah.  Even on my laptop I had it running at quite a high resolution – although when there’s a lot going on you may notice a bit of a hit in performance.

Sound
The music is subtle and can add a great deal of tension to the actual gameplay, whilst the sounds can at time have you on edge.  The wilderness is a strange place that should have you on edge – and the effects you’ll hear will provide just that atmosphere.  Character voice acting is on the whole very good, with few jarring moments.

Gameplay
There’s a lot in Fallout 3 that makes it a special game – even the character creation (that brings you up through your various critical moments in the vault of being born, being ten and taking your tests) tells you the game is S.P.E.C.I.A.L.  - which is exactly what the character stat and levelling system is!

To read more, visit my review on Forever Geek.

Kotaku has a brilliant excerpt from another article about Half-Life 2.

The crux of it is that Gordon Freeman remains silent in order for us to be more immersed in the game and experience it on a whole new level.

Do you believe this?  Here’s my response:

In what could be one of the most long-awaited titles (simply because there are a ton of fans out there who can’t wait to get their hands on the game) of this year for Xbox360, Alan Wake now has a new video - visit Kotaku to see it.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but sources now suggest this third person action/scare title is due now for 01/05/09 - so we’ve got a while longer to go yet…

It’s a debate that still rages - should you be ashamed of the hobby that you’ve harboured since - well, a long time now… Or should other people be educated in the fact that games are actually mature?

Games Radar has an absolutely fantastic take on this whole idea - completely subverting what others may consider mature and how the themes of games actually deal with the ‘real’ adult issues that other media such as books and films tackle.  Unfortunately, it’s this sort of coverage that is rarely offered in the press.

There’s no doubting that when it comes to Peter Molyneux, his games are normally quite good.  However, they are never the thoroughly excellent gems that he promises to bring to the table.  The reason for this?  Well, I still personally think that he aims too high.  There’s almost TOO MUCH ambition in there.  Instead, the game he wants to make is only able to be fully realised in about five years time.  As for this ‘one button does everything lark’ in Fable II, well it won’t be very appealing to me after the hard-as-nuts Ninja Gaiden II sessions I’ve been having (I do know there is a ‘rhythm’ to fights in Fable II on the Xbox 360 that does make it sound a little more interesting).  Nonetheless, I love to hear what the big man has to say, and this time he has come out with this gem:

“I think for a long time I mistook the number of features in a game for how good the game will be,” he said. “I’ve come to realize that’s wrong. I’ve got a great analogy. I think a lot of my games in the past, I’ve been like a cook [and I] just keep shoving ingredients in the pot thinking ‘oh, I need more of this, more of that.’ I never tasted it, and then normally it tasted a bit weird at the end. And now what I’ve realized is it’s not the number of features you’ve got in the game, it’s the way those features work together.” (from MTV Multiplayer).

So, what can we take from that?  Frankly, I have no idea.  Here’s hoping that he’s going to take one simple concept and make one simply amazing game.  After all, some of the most appealing games have simplicity at their core.  Just look at Tetris, WOW (the repetition of levelling), Mario Bros, Ikaruga (simple concept, really freaking hard), Lemmings and so on.  Maybe it’ll even be something like Archer Maclean’s Mercury?!  Who knows.  Let’s not get too excited just yet though.

Over at The Average Gamer there’s a great post on Oblivion and how the UI isn’t up to scratch.  Check it out, then come back here.  Here’s some reasons why I liked the Oblivion User Interface (I played it on the PC):

• It was fairly straightforward
• Compared to something like Neverwinter Nights 2 it was downright simple
• Items were grouped by type
• The Journal section was brilliant for keeping tabs on quests
• The view of your character let you see exactly what the modifications you made were doing
• One key lets you access everything

Perhaps Oblivion is made for those who’ve played many, many other roleplayers.  If you have ever had to inventory manage for something like Ultima 7 (on the PC, another amazing roleplaying game) then you’d see the leaps and bounds that we’ve come to get to where we are today.  That’s not to say that we can’t keep improving however.  What I will sign off with is that i found Oblivion to be one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time.  Everything from the graphics to the gameplay seemed to be of quite a polished standard.  I just hope that Bethesda can do the same for Fallout 3 and I’ll be happy.

Kotaku had this to report on the sci-fi horror shooter with weird symbotic monsters:

“Well this is a pleasant change from how things normally go down. EA’s survival horror space shooter Dead Space, once slated for the October 31st release date coveted by scary games everywhere, has been pushed forward. See? It doesn’t seem natural, does it? EA released a statement in Europe earlier today stating that the console versions of the game would be hitting store shelves on October 24th, a full week earlier than originally announced.”

You can find out more over at Kotaku.

The game will be available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

If you’re a fan of The Legend of Zelda, then you might just want to go and see this.  A comedy take on a much loved videogaming series, it looks to be fun indeed.  Here’s what the play has to say for itself:

Liink and Zellda do what they always do to obtain the Tryforce. She gets into trouble and loses it. And he saves her and gets it back. But, after Liink and Zellda come to blows, they part ways to decide what’s best for them – can they survive alone?  Don’t miss this exhilarating sword fighting adventure with two of your favourite game characters who encounter Gannon for the umpteenth time! Join Liink, Zellda, Marioh, Peech (and more!) on this delightful adventure. 

The Play Liink and Zellda: The Misadventure is showing at the following times/locations:

PERFORMANCE DATES (LONDON):

At the Cockpit Theatre
Gateforth St (off Church St),
London, NW8 8EH
www.cockpittheatre.org.uk

Friday 8th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Saturday 9th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Sunday 10th August 2008 at 2:30pm (swear-free matinee for kids)
Sunday 10th August 2008 at 8:00pm
Monday 11th August 2008 at 8:00pm

PERFORMANCE DATES (EDMONTON FRINGE FESTIVAL, CANADA):

VENUE #11
King Edward School, 8530-101 St.
The Edmonton International Fringe Festival is located in and around the TransAlta Arts Barns beween 103 Street (Gateway Boulevard) and 104 Street (Calgary Trail) and between 82nd Avenue (Whyte Avenue) and 86th Avenue

16th August 2008 at 7:00pm
17th August 2008 at 2:15pm
20th August 2008 at 11:30pm
21st August 2008 at 2:30pm
22nd August 2008 at 9:00pm
23rd August 2008 at 12:30pm
If you want to know more about the production company Foolhardy then click here.