Like most of the residents in the retirement wing of gaygamer castle, I find that there are two things that really make my weekend; receiving a scrumptious bed bath after my morning tea and some ferocious online swordplay in Soul Calibur IV. Nothing brings my crusty eyes into focus like a few Just Impacts and combo throws before breakfast. When lag destroys any chance of a fair match, there's nothing better than going Astaroth and pounding that vertical attack button like it's the emergency assistance button next to my bed.
For sure, hating those goddamn Kilik spammers is an important part of playing Soul Calibur IV online -- trying to get that Hero King achievement? Need level 20? You can bet your ass that as you are just about ready to pop the necessary level a 12-year-old with tourettes is waiting in the wings with a custom Kilik ready to smash your grey matter all over the pavement. If you're really unlucky and connection lag strangles the last breath of joy out of the match, you can endure the slow motion torture of repeated ring-outs and an oak pole up side the head. Want to get that achievement? Play Kilik of course! Hammering Y (or triangle PS3 owners) never felt so good...
When you've got all the achievements, basked in the glory of a level 20 ranking, and even hoarded all the comedy weapons (yes, including Ivy's magical sausage), what are you gonna do? When you finally finish Tower of Souls, there ain't much left in the single player mode. Forget about climbing up the online league tables. I mean c'mon, have you checked out the people who are at the top of those tables? People with 3000 wins and 1 loss, maxed out at rank level 99. I am sure if you traced those accounts back to an address there are kids all round the world gripping Hori arcade sticks with arms like Michael Phelps, ending the dreams of hopeless chumps like me.
Well, I have been experimenting, and I think there is some HUGE added value to be had in Soul Calibur IV. There's fun to be had with the quirkier bits of Soul Calibur IV. The purpose of this short guide is to help you to get your own back against those pain-in-the-behind Cervantes, Kilik and Mitsurugi spammers, you know the types, doing the same move over and over and over again. Invariably those same players are the kind that shoot their mouth off at the slightest challenge to their authority, and hey, Soul Calibur IV has attracted the same breed of idiot that likes to hurl macho crap around on the likes of Halo 3. This guide, once implemented, will guarantee a slap to the face for every cheap, bigoted douche who likes to ruin your day in Soul Calibur IV.
Make the jump to learn my super special secrets for making them cry!
I guess it's pretty easy to forget that behind the gigantic, cold, icy face of big business there are founding individuals who worked their fingers to the bone.
Richard and David Darling, founders of British industry giant Codemasters, have been awarded the CBE. If case you're interested, that means Commander of the Order of the British Empire (and probably comes with +5 stamina +10 agility too) and is quite the honor.
Richard and David are a real bedroom coder to multimillionaire success story, having begun their careers making BMX Simulator. In 2007 the brothers sold their stake in the company, after 21 years in games production.
I don't consider myself a very materialistic person. When I opted for the XBOX360 Elite over the other systems, it was out of compassion for all the struggling XBLA developers whose games I would invest in; when I swapped my old Sony CRT for a slick Toshiba Regza 40-inch Plasma, the purchase was motivated by my love of brow-furrowing documentaries on human rights. If you could spend Nintendo reward points on homeless kitten shelters, I would already have the URL bookmarked.
In periods of reprieve in between selfless giving, I like to tinker on the videogame consoles of yesteryear. Looking around my dusty attic this morning, I saw the PlayStation2 sitting there, underneath a teetering stack of Vogue back issues. Suddenly my heart skipped a beat as I remembered the many faithful years Mr. P Station had stared at me with his Bowie-style blue and green eyes, spinning discs in his tummy and never ever crashing out. I took some time to vacuum his vents, then wired him up.
I was nervous. Spending so much time with XBOX360, I was high on the sparkly of 1080p. The big black beast had me hooked on the arm-chopping Viking all this month, so going back to PS2 I needed something special; I needed old school intensity. Friends had come to visit and I had to play something at least slightly social. So I get Gitaroo Man down off the shelf. This is one of my most favourite games of all time, with its hug me graphics and **** me gameplay, you'd be hard pressed to find a more satisfying immediate experience on PS2.
I boot the machine up, it asks me if i want to load/create a new save, there is a memory card in the machine. I say load. Computer says no. There is no Gitaroo Man save file on this card! That can't be right, I have a full completion recorded somewhere. Anyway who cares; I try to play with the gritty determination of Halo youth gone wild. Things didn't go well; that Shark on level 3 humiliated my unpractised paws much to the amusement of my onlookers. Exasperated I went on an insane hunt for the memory card that could vouch for the long lost skills needed to complete the game. I have been searching ever since. I figure losing a card is like losing a photo album; it doesn't destroy the experience you once had, but it prevents you from boring your friends with it later on at your discretion. Little grey PS2 memory card, please come home!
Has anyone else ever lost a memory card? If so tell me about it. I need a support group!
A lot of people have accused Koei of making the same game over and over, and considering we are now on the sixth iteration of Dynasty Warriors, that is true to some degree. What they tend to mean is that the game is marked by intensely repetitive gameplay, which differs little from one game to the next. In the recent (and in my view excellent) Bladestorm the thirty-year-old Japanese developer demonstrated that they can at least play with the genre conventions of their core franchises to produce satisfying twists on the staple battlefield action.
Warriors Orochi was a big hit for me -- a massive roster of characters were taken from the two worlds of Samurai and Dynasty Warriors respectively, and the cosmic carnage that ensued revived a sense of true arcade action in my living room.
Dynasty Warriors 6 was hailed as the first true next generation incarnation of the game, with an upgraded combat engine, graphic style, and intense tactical focus. Whereas in the previous title (WO) you had acute control over the combination attacks of your chosen crowd smasher, in this title you simply mash one of two buttons to cycle through a default attack pattern. In this regard, the game feels slightly dislocated, and I feel less personally skilled when I triumph over a particularly hard strategic obstacle or stalwart enemy officer. I simply mash by x button, hoping against hope that his guard drops, trying intermittently to get the largely broken 'throws' to connect. Poor collision, clunky camera (with no full reset) and arkward enemy movement make for a largely unsatisfying experience reminiscent of amateur ice skating, or Ninety Nine Nights.
The combat is a real sticking point for me, and I feel (two hours in) that this isn't the game I was promised in the rhetoric of the TGS videos. Considering the sheer output of Koei around these franchises I feel that DW6 is a victim of the split energies of its maker:
Dynasty Warriors 6 (X360)
Mar 07, 08
Samurai Warriors: Katana (WII)
Feb 22, 08
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends (PS2)
Mar 21, 08
Warriors Orochi: PC (PC)
Mar 28, 08
Warriors Orochi: PSP (PSP)
Mar 28, 08
Warriors Orochi: PSP (PSP)
Mar 28, 08
Warriors Orochi 2 (PS2)
Apr 03, 08
Like Michael Myers, the game violence debate just wont disappear when you want it to, and when you thought everything was safe, it's there breathing down your neck. The British government, in response to calls for an enquiry into the nature of video game violence alongside internet nasties, is now looking to formalise a system of mandatory classification reminiscent of that found accompanying film releases.
As the recent enquiry into Man Hunt 2 highlighted, the BBFC takes a role in censoring the most extreme games. Current forms of statutory labelling only apply to titles which feature 'gross' violence to people or animals; representatives from the BBFC clarified last year at the Women in Games conference that the context in which the violence is shown is taken into consideration, so if there is a frame of fantasy and disbelief which prevents the violence from being 'unremitting' and 'senseless' then it is considered to be established appropriately for an audience.
This little flash game by indie game guru Yoshio Ishii featured here a few days ago, only to fade quietly into the background. Watery eyed insomniac that I am, I was trawling back through posts and decided to give it a little go. Now I am normally unimpressed by the dynamics of small web game experiments. Most have either gorgeous graphic styling or interesting microcosms of gameplay, but rarely do style and content come together in a satisfying mix.
Cursor*10 is a minimalist experiment with the feel of mazes made for lab rats, and the alienating grids of Marble Madness come to mind. The gameplay is simple, click the stairs to ascend, click other objects to reveal hidden stairs. Nothing too complex. However, each turn (represented as cursor 'life') is 'recorded' into the level. As you click and play a second time, your game from the first life plays out simultaneously. As such, to advance through the more complex puzzles you have to literally play with the previous game, thinking forward about how you might take advantage of your prior choices.
I am currently playing through Mario Galaxy with my boyfriend. It's amazing how the ostensibly simple yet spellbinding gameplay breaks new ground, and how it can bring a seasoned platform veteran and a stalwart novice together in matrimonial couch-potato bliss. It's so colourful and 'chunky' and self-aware; it makes me think back to Marble Madness, Toejam n' Earl, Parodius and all those othe gems from the 16-bit days.
Dare I say it, in hindsight not all Mario games are so pleasurable though. I remember playing through the Lost Levels way back when I was in college. Many controllers felt my crushing fury as I died over, and over, and over again. Goddamnit I hated parts of that game (and the anguish of having someone else finish it for me...).
Out of the blue gamer friends of mine Julian Kücklich and Gillian Andrews sent me a link to this little gem, a satirical Super Mario Bros style game, in which you play Hello Kitty a teeny white cat with vacant eyes and an indestructible smile. In a mind-breaking tour of feline fatalities, the level design conspired to make it almost impossible to complete, turning the conventions of the Super Mario game-world in on themselves. The result is a hilarious satire of Mario and its imitators, but I can't help but feel within this sort of indie design a more serious commentary on what gameplay is, how difficulty is scaled, and how (if you read the commentary of people who have played the game here) the most determined player gets their way in the end, no matter how small the window of possible success.
It's official -- Chrismas is over. No doubt you are utterly bored, held under house arrest while your nearest and dearest slowly turn in their respective hibernation positions, emitting noxious gases on a scale that jeopardise climate change protocols. Irrespective of how old you are, your haul of presents will almost certainly be missing that essential item you really wanted, the one you hinted at for 11 months, y'know. In its place in your stocking is something worthy and meaningful, when in your heart of hearts you crave zombie death and a sugar rush. Yes, 2007 has marked the Christmas of culturally, economically and environmentally respectable gifts; from sea-salt soap to shares in $100 Laptops for kids what don't read so good. When your friends buy you a donkey-hair bath-brush with matching eagle spit shower-gel, fair trade of course, you know its time to hurry things along into the new year with ample quantities of mulled wine and Mario Galaxy.
In a recent article for the BBC, technology editor Darren Waters notes that -- with the recent award of coveted 10/10 Edge scores to Orange Box, Halo 3 and Mario Galaxy -- we are entering what might be described as a new golden age of videogames. For sure, on the third gen platforms there are many really impressive games that demonstrate the graphic and social capability of the kit, but are these particularly excellent games really indicative of a widespread shift in the quality of games? History has shown that, in gaming, for every prized racehorse there are a hundred lame donkeys.
It's certainly hard not to be caught up in the whirlwind of excitement, particularly around the ubiquitous Nintendo Wii and DS, which is selling everywhere like hot cakes. In the time it took me to purchase some discount PS2 games the other day, three grandmotherly-types came into my local game store, asked if there were any Wiis available, and left dejected as the retailer gave familiar winsome excuses. This struck me as indicative of the everyday demand for the console. Adding Edge magazine's recent flush of 10s to Wii hype (tm), Darren Waters certainly feels rosy about the future:
The Edge scores are just one of a number of signs that reinforce a growing feeling that videogames are enjoying a golden age.
As a massive beat-'em-up fan, Soul Calibur has been the definitive 3D game for me. Sure, I can get geeky and count frames in Virtua Fighter, or get down with those moody Kazama's in that Iron Fist thingy, but there is something about smashing steel that really raises my pulse. Soul Blade on PlayStation was a revelation, after I felt so personally let down by the conversion of Battle Arena Toshinden.
Way back when PlayStation was a rich kid's indulgence and the arcades still groomed our brightest stars, Siegfried was just a troubled teen, whose whimsy thin arms could carry impossibly large swords with the greatest of ease, in a gravity defying ballet of smash and slash. He was the button masher character of choice, powering through any defence with a predictable but irrepressible three-hit smash. If that boy became a postman, many doors in the land would be reduced to spit and splinters, such is the power of his punch. The question has always preoccupied me -- how could such a skinny little wimp get such pneumatic lift out of his puny twig arms? Surely they would snap like bread sticks as he attempted to elevate the mighty claymore acquired from the corpse of his dead daddy?
For all of you that are currently taking classes in media history, American academic Mark J. P. Wolf has edited and published a new collection of essays, The Video Game Explosion, which look at the history and development of videogames. The blurb reads:
Once dismissed as a fleeting fad of the young and frivolous, video games have become a booming industry that promises to drive the future of new media and emerging technologies. Today, video games have become a limitless and multifaceted medium through which major corporations and Hollywood visionaries alike are reaching broader global audiences and influencing cultural trends at a rate unmatched by any other media.This book traces the growth of a global phenomenon that has become an integral part of popular culture today. All aspects of video games and gaming culture are covered inside this engaging reference work, including the leading video game innovators, the technological advances that made the games of the late 1970s and those of today possible, the corporations that won and lost billions of dollars pursing this lucrative market, arcade culture, and the demise of free-standing video consoles and the rise of home-based and handheld gaming devices. Narrative chapters explore the ongoing debates about whether video games lead to violence in children and teens (as was the case with the Columbine High School shootings) in addition to other topics, such as the evolution of the new games, and the battle between Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Sure we know much of this story already, but it's certainly interesting stuff, considering you couldn't find the word 'videogame' in a school, college or university anywhere a decade ago! Normally, if you put a gamepad in an unwitting tutor's hand you are sure to bring them out in a rash, but accompany it with a book like this and I am sure gaming will receive a much warmer reception. It's refreshing to learn about how games are made and received further afield; what about games in south america, australia, france, germany, CANADA? Games are slowly finding their way into education, and getting the history right is an important contemporary project for researchers around the world. Better games history means better reference resources for games designers, which means better games! Everybody wins!
The Zelda series has garnered controversy over the years for the style choices made by the design team, most notably for The Wind Waker on Game Cube, which featured striking cel-shaded visuals and charming cartoon action. Bright blasts of yellow and green marked a departure from the look of the masterpiece Ocarina of Time on the N64, Edge magazine's number 1 game EVER. But the fans weren't sure. Its true, there wasn't a games magazine in the land that didn't feature a letters page rich with the ink of fervent fans offended by this new cartoon styling, their efforts matched by stalwart critics staging a war of attrition on behalf of Miyamoto-san.
The argument: surely games don't need graphic realism, when there is so much animation and comic art to inspire the designer in new directions. Then again, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
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