Broken By Design

Having not yet purchased a Wii, or been able to, (’sup Gamecube technology?) the most I was able to sink into Twilight Princess could really only constitute a preview of the first 12 hours of the game.

But what a game.

Finally a realistic Zelda from the era of Ocarina of Time, and Link has never so…Cowboy like. The start to the game, the little village, the characters, the new ghost town incarnation of Kakariko, all have a common look and theme of the wild west and American Indian heritage. Quite a stylistic departure from games of old, and a world away from the much maligned, (but personally loved), Wind Waker.

The controls are perhaps the most talked upon subject concerning a Wii game, and here I have no qualms. Although a straight port from the Gamecube , the wiimote fits perfectly with the design and gameplay, in some cases speeding up use of many of the items serving Link, the Bow and arrow for example. The sword fighting feels natural and frantic and movement with the nunchuk peripheral not at all uncomfortable. The wiimote also serves as a creepy and immersive reminder of your new charge in the twilight zone, Midna. With her gleeful chuckles resonating from the remotes speaker, tinny as it is.

The story, controversially, is not as different as Nintendo would have you believe, and although the adventure is huge, you’re still going to be collecting 3 items (shock!), then visiting numerous temples (awe!), all in the aid of rescuing….maybe a princess!? Who knows who the final boss could be.

A more rigorous play through would garner a stronger view on the similarities between Twilight Princess and the rest of the series, but for now, with a few hours under my belt, I want so much more time with Hyrule and its hero.

A common question asked of Konami is “Should they continue to make 2D Castlevania games?” Considering how much the games sell on the DS, or any title for that matter (’sup Hannah Montana?), all the company can do is continue to develop them. The franchise is still as popular as its first NEW incarnation.

The first thing that struck me was just how difficult the game is, it certainly does not let up, the enemy design, although classic now, is excellent, and a pattern or tactic to beating all can be obtained. Boss design, similarly, is fantastical and unwavering in its difficulty, but thoroughly worth the battle.

The new RPG elements now come to the front of this experience, with traditional upgrading of armour and weapons but now with the unusual inclusion of collecting enemy souls to provide magic attacks, or to infuse weaponry to progress. Above all, this adds to the depth of what essentially is a traditional 2D platforming game. There is barely any use of the DS stylus and when used on Boss encounters, it seems clunky and not well implemented to the games normally slick presentation.

Puzzles are not of the simple variety, the game is difficult from all angles, but incredibly enjoyable nonetheless, providing a reasonably good learning curve to beginners, but certainly ramping up for a series veterans and hardcore players alike.

It’s a tough title and one I personally could not play from start to finish in one sitting, it is perfectly suited to the DS. Frustration sets in, a quick save and the game is off, only for it to be returned to again, and again, and again. That’s the brilliance of Castlevania.

8/10

“Oh God!” I exclaimed. “Not another N64 port!” Nevertheless, when I realised just how much time I had previously sunk into the Gamecube incarnation, I discovered that the worry was concerning my social life, and not the state of first party DS releases.

Animal Crossing at its heart is a fresh and bounding take on collect quests, but one that has been released years previous. Does it feel old and stale? Yes and no. Graphically it feel 10 years old, and although the DS’s polygon pushing powers are not King, it potentially could of benefitted from a 2D or isometric makeover, rather like the soon to be released Harvest Moon. Look at Castlevanias two DS title, they have clearly learned from the terrible 3D games.

However, the sheer variety of tasks to perform will keep you coming back, as your town duly requires you to. As you arrive in your randomly generated town, your avatar is already press ganged into service of the local stores owner, Tom Nook, and as you work for both him and townsfolk to pay off your debts, you will develop some kind of OCD towards affording enough new furniture and obsessive fruit picking.

Saying this, it was advertised as the most relaxed game to play on the DS. The real-time nature of the game means there is no rush in-game to do anything, from fishing to fossil collecting or running errands. The flip side to this is the annoyingly slow menu systems and changing of items. This, couples with a sometimes-unintuitive use of the stylus (baring letter writing, which is now thankfully easy), can leave you frustrated rather than calm.

Ultimately, it has made me long for a Gamecube joypad and the realisation that this is not only a very last-gen experience, but not something that is needed for the discerning handheld gamer.

4.5/10

Having played this game now for over 2 years on and off, I feel I can only now make a valid review. How can you really review something that it constantly being changed and tweaked to find balance? The same could be said for any PC (or recently, any Xbox360) game with constant patch and bug-fixing rife. World of Warcraft as it is now, post Burning Crusade expansion, represents as final as the initial world has come to be.

Having not even dipped my virtual toes into Burning Crusades world of Outland, I will leave that topic for another time, and in so doing can be classed a casual player. What strikes me about World of Warcraft is the fact that it appeals to such a broad audience, something I have mentioned before here but will expand on. Casual PC gamers and hardcore alike are drawn to this title, young or older, male or female, and I certainly believe the colourful fantasy setting is the biggest proponent of inclusion to all comers.

The game is not difficult. Even without some kind of basic mathematical knowledge you can level up your avatar within the game, and the people who do grasp its technical side will certainly benefit at the higher levels and more difficult areas.

I always hear that there are not enough variety in the quests provided in the game world, but I tend to disagree. Up to World of Warcrafts release there was nothing I played that had any form of salient quests whatsoever, or in some cases, any quests whatsoever. It was all about progression through grinding levels and kills. The basic collect and kill quests are not the rule within Warcraft and the more unusual objectives are always broadened by the profession and trade skill sets that are not only fantastic and diverse, but can be as shallow or deep as the player chooses to plunge.

The real winner for me within the game, the reason I am constantly pulled back to Azeroth, is the sense of community. Whether playing with friends or as a guild group I cannot say I’ve ever had so much fun with a PC game. Instances, the 5 man team dungeons for pre-level 60 players, incorporate excellent level and art design, as well as requiring the team to think of differing strategies and tactics to make it through to the end. It will always depend on your class, one of many, which can represent a completely different gaming experience depending on your ability as a fighter, magic caster or hybrid.
I love being able to quest with friends and sharing experiences within the opulent world provided by Blizzard.

It could be improved, there’s always room for improvement, but the nature of online games allows the development team to evolve or change the game as the future progresses. A more involved and option providing character builder would be fantastic, as a huge amount of the player-base look the same, only differing due to their equipment.

This is a class product, something you expect from Blizzard, and that it keeps on drawing me back into its folds is proof enough that the potential for its future on my screen is secured.

10/10

Are games art? It is an ever on-going debate and in a personal opinion, one that does not need discussing. Films and music can be art, why not videogames? Are all films art? No, certainly not. One look at pulpy trash such as Doom and the various Mary Kate and Ashley movies prove that point. Okami, however, is art.

It is lush, vibrant and gorgeous in its entirety, even from the dark and dismal introduction to the first village it makes you stare in wonder. As one of the last gasps from an aging console, it certainly makes you ponder why Sony are already abandoning its prime money making machine. Okami revels in its inked traditional Japanese cel-shaded style and indeed, employs the ink calligraphy as one of the key game mechanics. Draw a sun and daytime appears, fill in the gaps and a bridge is mended, circle a tree and it bursts into bloom, what this game is all about – natural restoration.

For once, the gamer is presented with an adventure game of almost Zelda-like quality on a non-Nintendo platform, and that is not to say it is without its flaws. An awful battle camera when ridding the world of its demons, and far too many items to collect comprise of the only two defects that come to mind. The game can sometimes be a little too Ocarina of Time, with the world map clearly aping Hyrule Field and the visibly defined linear storyline set against a hub-world and themed areas, although they are all beautifully realised. The introduction is another rub, overly long, and mostly un-skippable, a huge pet-peeve of mine.

Finally Sony have a artistically creative adventure game they can be proud of in the dying days of the Playstation 2, but Capcom’s Clover Studios have already fallen like the Japanese cherry blossom this game will always have me thinking upon.

8.5/10

From the team behind innovative and artistically deviant title Killer 7, comes Contact, a quirky and colourful RPG that fills out what is a serious hole in the DS’s back catalogue. A mad scientist and his not-quite-sure-if-it’s-a-dog crash land on Earth disguised as a pirate ship and it is up to you to help repair it. Or is it?

This game constantly breaks the fourth wall asking you the player to assist the actual protagonist of the piece, a young boy. This is certainly a nice touch from the developers and it allows for some actually quite clever humour, it is a game that knows very well that it is a videogame, and what genre it is. The combat, real-time , to suit the exploration, is very stereotypical of any old-school dungeon crawlers and the only depth this seems to generate is of storing points to use on special attacks gained from donning a number of costumes acquired throughout the play-time. So far, so very Final Fantasy.

The way this title tries to differentiate itself is through the clever use of “stickers” in and out of combat, using intuitive DS stylus movements combined with the touch-screen to apply them.

Although lacking some necessary depth, the game certainly is enjoyable for its quirks, and the development teams take on the RPG genre as well as what they want to bring to it. Some things that should be included as a mainstay are the digesting system for in game eating of health and effect providing items, and the cooking techniques, which are both intricate and easy to access. Although the title hits a few high spots throughout its life span and what it brings from previous genre examples it delivers with certain panache, but ultimately this leave the gamer wanting more.

6.5/10

This was quite a wacky premise for a game; Psychic soldiers, trained to rid your mind of the baggage and worry as well as the nightmares where no man may confront. A very original setting and hats off to Double Fine for trying to innovate here, there are no bald space marines!

Other innovation comes part and parcel with some of the level design, with it constantly defying the laws of physics and the frankly strange perspectives it appropriates for your cause. However, whilst all of this is intriguing and definitely…”wacky”, it has inspired the realisation that this game is not all as original as it would have you believe. It is a platforming game. Sure, the art style is weird and the sense of placement is highly original, but in an overall vision this is a straight up “hub-world” adventure platforming game, albeit with the usual set of collect quests, much like a Nintendo classic, Banjo Kazooie.

There is the usual enhancement of character with new abilities, as well as two annoying features. The camera is incredibly frustrating; An a-typical example of 3D platforming games and the combat comes from the GTA school of thought, but without any kind of decent lock-on system.

The selling point from the developer may well have been the story and script, but frankly, while there were a few chuckles as the games introduction unfolded, they soon petered away and wound up being skipped altogether. Cut-scene after cut-scene meant for plot exposition being discarded like so much waste.

Under its weird looks and over-rated story lies a competent platforming game which can keep you amused but this is not the cult classic message boards would have you believe.

6/10

I hate to get biblical, God knows I do, but this, this..thing in front of me surely is the most beautiful, touching and intriguing analogy of David and Goliath ever created, told, or drawn. I say drawn because like it’s predecessor Ico, Shadow of the Colossus is something to hold in the argument of videogames as art.

As graphics go, plain and simple, this is ugly, but its ugliness extends to parts of the whole. Drab textures and some terrible environmental polygons. The whole itself is magnificent, and strange that something like graphical accomplishment can lend itself to the end product of a game. Graphics are not important. Are they? Photorealism has a time and place and that to me is Gears of War, to name a notable example. With Shadow of the Colossus graphics are important only to show a representation of the resplendent but lonely world our David inhabits.

The twelve colossi he is charged with bringing down are the real attractions to the game. Wandering hulks of beauty, revelling in their fusion with each particular part of the world. Destroying them is the players given task, but it is the experience of climbing the giants that will bring you back again and again. No block pushing here, the puzzle, the level, the end-boss, it is all one and the same thing. The design of the game is strange and may seem inappropriately short for some, but I will always remember the first time I was riding the flying sand dune colossi and like my avatar, feeling blown away.

It’s not built like a regular adventure game, their are no enemies except for the colossi themselves, and there is little to do except move from one to the other. This is perhaps the let down, and sometimes this can make the game feel repetitive and a hard slog. Also it is maybe a little disheartening an ending, certainly not on par with Ico, but it will be interesting to see what the team is working on in terms of PS3 development. However, as a last breath for the now aging PS2 hardware, this is breath-taking.

9/10

I remember my school days from not so long ago, and I rarely think upon them quite as fun as Jimmy Hopkins seems to be having at Bullworth Academy. Although proclaimed by some to be a ‘GTA lite’, Bully is anything but, the game has not only a more detailed look to it, and a timeless style to suit, but a much more detailed field of gameplay to match; There is far more to do in the microcosm than CJ et al could ever perform. The rival factions of the school are a brilliant evolution from the team behind ‘The Warriors’, Rockstar Vancouver, but has clear influences from elsewhere in the company, in the form of the territory wars in San Andreas.

The nerds, the preppies, the bullies, the greasers or the jocks, you choose who to align with, although for the most part the heavily linear story drives your inevitable involvement with all of them. It’s the attention to detail Rockstar have made with this game that really shines through, clearly drawing on not only popular and ‘of the time’ television and films, Grange Hill and St. Trinians to name a few, but from the teams own childhood experiences.

It’s clear that their time wooing girls, picking locker doors and generally misbehavin’ has been a huge benefit to the game. The amount of humour and realism, derived from that humour, is fantastic and very fresh to gaming still. What recent games can claim to be funny really in this and certainly next gen?

The game really is something more complete as a whole rather than looking at each individual part as it is quite easy and believable a world, especially due to the time constraints of getting to and from class aand then attempting a mission, or venturing into the varied and beautiful town surrounding the school. An instant classic and one wirth adding to the collection of must-have Rockstar games you should already own for your PS2.

8/10

My first thoughts after giving this a quick play was just how similar it was to its predecessor, an obvious point to make maybe, but in this case it may be just too similar. Sure, it’s widely expanded, and a lot tougher than the previous game but I was constantly looking at it and thinking that it was the same thing over and over again, something I never had done with the original. Repetition is a huge part of the title and it harks back to N64 days with Banjo Kazooie for pure amounts of stuff to obtain. This has left me cold at points, and coupled with the limited combat mechanics, something I found charmingly retro in the original, it presents a rhythm of the same button presses over and over again.

The source material for the game, the original Star Wars trilogy definitely makes up for an amount of woes and the sheer tongue in cheek humour it inspires leaves a lasting smile on the face. It is a huge game, something that may well give its intended audience many hours of game to chew on if they can see past the monotone combat and incentives. The audience it is indeed set for may well be the younger gamer, but it certainly nods at Star Wars purists and hardcore gamers alike with some very well hidden items as well as humour in the shape of Stormtroopers in Speedos.

It’s only major problem is it’s lasting appeal and if I’m already tiring with the limited tight-knit formulae then I can only hope the next in the ‘Lego’ series (reportedly Batman) will introduce more mechanics and evolve the combat or wildly shake it up with a change of tack. Travellers Tales hae a great reputation as a development studio and they need to think about what has been produced and be flexible rather than to reiterate constantly. Hello FIFA, yes, I’m looking at you.

6/10