.

The Rooks vs The Seagulls

2011-10-27T00:29:00.005+01:00

In honour of two of Sussex's fine football clubs, tonight I've compared beers representing Lewes FC (my club, the mighty Rooks) and Brighton & Hove Albion (the Seagulls).

Harveys is a sponsor of both clubs and with BHA's recent move to their new stadium at Falmer, has produced Albion Ale to be served in the stadium bar.

Last year was Lewes FC's 125th anniversary and Harveys produced a commemorative ale. I've drunk several bottles since it was released and tonight I finished my last one to celebrate our 4-0 victory over Wick in the Sussex Senior Cup.

So, how do the two beers shape up? The Albion Ale's label says that it is derived from Harveys Sussex Best and that's definitely evident. It comes across as a sweeter, less hoppy version of that classic brew. It's lower in alcohol (3.6% rather than 4.0%) but not noticeably thinner. Copper colour, little head. Sweet aroma, similar to Sussex Best without the hopping. Flavour is toffeeish. Clean finish, good weight for 3.6%. Overall, I think it's a drinkable beer and the low strength should be commended.

The Lewes FC 125th Anniversary Ale is considerably stronger at 4.7% but doesn't feel too heavy. It is a bright golden amber colour with a small diminishing white head. The nose has cloves, dusty hops and some toffeeish malt. The finish is quite sweet with a hint of oranges. It's quite lively fresh from the bottle but as it warms and settles it develops a pleasing honeyed feel.

So, who wins this East Sussex derby? It's a hard-fought affair but for me, the Rooks' beer is more complex and more satisfying. That said, I'd certainly recommend that any fans of the Tesco Carrier Bags (sorry, couldn't resist) use their Amex card to purchase a pint of Albion ahead of Carling, Budweiser or whatever industrial lager they are otherwise offered.

The very best of luck to both clubs this season and most of all, continued success to Harveys Brewery. Don't forget...

Brighton & Hove Albion FC: founded 1901.

Lewes FC: founded 1885.

Harveys of Lewes: founded 1790!

GDC 2011 in some strange words

2011-04-07T20:21:00.005+01:00

The Game Developers Conference (GDC), held in San Francisco in early March is the conference highlight of the year for a lot of people in the industry. I see quite a strange side of it, being cooped up in business meetings for nearly the entirety of the week. I've been going to the show since 2004 and have yet to attend a session. That doesn't mean that the show isn't a huge amount of fun. Meeting after meeting does wear you down but the excitement of never knowing quite what the next half hour will hold drives me on.

I'm also lucky to work in an industry that doesn't take itself too seriously and which is full of people with a somewhat warped sense of humour. In the course of this year's week in SF a number of interesting phrases were coined and I felt I should share them here.

"Money Fight" - what you do to amuse yourself when your product has brought in an absolutely sickening amount of cash. You grab bundles of banknotes and just hurl them at each other. Notch and the guys at Mojang probably have money fights most days of the week. Bill Gates undoubtedly has a subterranean money fight arena (think a Mayan ball game court with better floodlights) for his monthly match against Steve Jobs.

"Legally Binding Twix" - delicious bite-sized snack bar which, when eaten, irrevocably commits you to publishing the game of the person who provided it.

"Filipino Candy" - nice sweets from the Philippines. Usually fruity. Just *sounds* dodgy.

"Not the best selling rabbit" - they may look cute but Mindscape's Karotz are unlikely to outsell the current favourite rabbit.

"Small Penis Laptop" - a "gaming laptop" that's twice as big as a laptop should be, with coloured lights and large fans. The Toshiba Qosmio would be an example. Suggests that the owner may be overcompensating for something.

"Imperial Beef" - dish offered by the food vendors at Game Connection that sounds scary yet is so beguilingly named that I ended up trying it - partly as it reminded me of the 'Imperial Hot' meme. The food? A generous helping of tasty beef teriyaki.

"Trained in business. Bred to reject." - the tagline to the definitive action movie about videogame acquisitions managers. Which is sadly yet to be made.

"Accountancy Party" - at the superb Killscreen party, you played cool indie games on huge screens in a warehouse, cheered on by your drunken peers. Accountants have similar parties except they are reconciling Excel sheets to whoops of encouragement.

That's it for the words of the show. What else?

Best proper food of the week: a superb Beef Brisket with roast potatoes and brussel sprouts at Magnolia.

Best junk food of the week: I discovered a "Make your own frozen yoghurt sundae" place in the Westfield mall and made myself a concoction that included chocolate, vanilla and strawberry frozen yoghurt, whole blackberries, choc chips, sprinkles and a couple of sauces. It was amazing and cost less than $7.

Best drink of the week: Nearly everything on the list at the 21st Amendment Brewery. I bought the t-shirt. And a hat.

Best party: I didn't get to many but the Killscreen indie party was great. Danes know how to party. I had a laugh playing Jesus vs Dinosaurs and ended up drinking aquavit forfeits after losing a dance-off. For a Brit, there was also the novelty of drinking out of the iconic red cups, which we only see in American movies being used for beer pong. I was even briefly a hipster as I was drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon at a warehouse party. For shame.

Rectangles of the year 2010: Other things

2010-12-31T18:47:00.006Z

Continuing my round-up of my favourite media that I consumed this year (little of which came out this year)...

Books

Looking back, I didn't read much this year and bought very few books. However, I did read two sets of superb books, kindly lent by a friend. These were the Takeshi Kovacs books by Richard Morgan and the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercombie. If you like your characters hard and extremely nasty, I cannot recommend these highly enough. Best Served Cold, which is a standalone revenge story set in the same universe at the First Law books (and featuring some cameos) is also excellent.

Music

I'd say that my "thing of the year" was Spotify, which has completely altered how I listen to music and got me listening to new (to me at least!) music again. I completely love it.

The album that I've found myself listening to again and again this year is The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem.

Movies

I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim and Inception but I was really blown away by watching The Prestige on DVD. It's a clever and gripping film and certainly made think better of Christian Bale. David Bowie does a great little cameo as Nikolai Tesla too!

Rectangles of the year 2010: Games

2010-12-31T17:51:00.008Z

Taking my cue from Ricky's excellent piece of terminology, here is a quick run-down of my favourite games of 2010.

Over the last month, I've spent well over a hundred hours playing Dragon Quest IX. It's the first DQ I've played but it seems to included got all the good things from JRPGs while eliminating nearly all the bad (ie it makes backtracking instant and you can avoid battles). Some of the side quests are based on random drops and can turn into grinds but that's a small complaint. It has vast additional content with random dungeons, new daily items via wi-fi, new quests weekly and co-op play. I get the feeling that I will end up playing it as much as I did Disgaea on PS2 (200+ hours).

Back at the beginning of the year, I posted about VVVVVV and I still consider it one of the best games I've played all year. It gave me one glorious night of platforming par excellence (and I usually hate platformers) and a soundtrack that I've listened to regularly since January.

Red Dead Redemption makes the list for letting me to feel like Clint in a classic western. Lots of great moments but even just riding round doing nothing is a pleasure. I haven't bought the DLC yet but everyone in my office who did buy it has loved it.

An honourable mention goes to Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light as I had a great time playing local co-op with a mate and then went back and 100%-ed it too. It alas also gets a nomination for "Most Botched Launch of the year" imho.

Likewise, an honourable mention to Bayonetta. Thanks to the easy mode, I was finally able to enjoy a game of this sort having never been able to get anywhere due to poor skills before. I got to play right through and kick a god into the sun for chrissakes! That's got to be worth something.

In the middle of the year I went through a phase of playing Mount & Blade: Warband obsessively. It ran like a dog on my old home PC but I was still playing for half a day at a time and taking save games back and forth to my work PC with a USB key. It's too structurally flawed for it to be one of my games of the year - I ended up giving up playing it in frustration at the confusing and broken strategic game. (If anyone out there knows how to successfully keep hold of a castle, I'd love to hear from you!)

However it's definite honourable mention. Leading a cavalry charge in M&B is a feeling that you don't get in any other game... you lure the enemy into a position where the terrain is in your favour, give the order, then build speed, drop your lance and break their infantry in front of you... then swap to a sabre or mace and start laying about you. It feels amazing and the very real risk of over-extending yourself, being cut off from your troops and having your horse hacked from under you in the mêlée gives every battle a tense edge. Taleworlds deserve a lot of credit for the game and for putting the nascent Turkish development scene on the map.

And finally, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes gets an honourable mention for being nearly a perfect DS title and definitely the overlooked game of 2010 (2009 release in NA, 2010 in EU). Bursting with charm, a smooth difficulty curve, great mechanics, lovely art, it gets -1 Caspar point for having a missable sidequest (that I duly missed). However, I'm going to buy the XBLA version when it comes out so I can thrash people in online multiplayer.

(Sitting on the shelf expectantly: Mass Effect 2 (I dabbled a bit but need to get stuck in) and Nier (really interested in this due to what I've heard online).

Brought to you by the letter C and the numbers 6 and 4

2010-01-24T21:36:00.000Z

Last spring I mentioned Don't Look Back, created by Terry Cavanagh. Well, there's good news as Terry's first commercial game, the interestingly titled VVVVVV, is now available.

It provided me with an excellent evening's entertainment - for less than the price of three pints and a bag of crisps (£9). Overall it's simple, coherent, lovingly presented (with nods to Dizzy and other C64-era classics) and difficulty-wise (with the exception of one blip) perfectedly pitched. For those with truly amazing platforming skills there are time trials and the challenge of completing the game with the minimum number of deaths. I took around 660 to complete the game but that was up to over 1100 by the time I'd bagged all twenty collectable trinkets. A couple of them will really test you and the "Veni, Vidi, Vici" series of rooms are already going down in gaming legend. Tough, but worth it for the elation you feel when you nail it.

Superb is too weak a word to describe the chiptune soundtrack, that is handily available here, Eurogamer have a more detailed (or just longer?) review here and there's a good interview with Terry here. One question remains - is the game named for the six crewmembers in the game, the look of the "www" in a URL or the ever-present rows of spikes that will be your doom so many, many times?

Things I learned from videogames #9

2010-01-24T18:37:00.003Z

Contrary to what you might think, the ability to make conversation is not essential for a career in retail. A few stock phrases will get you through all customer service situations, leaving you free to concentrate on price gouging.

Prediction: There will be one major social gaming or casual MMO flameout in 2010

2010-01-05T04:29:00.001Z

Generally, when someone says "This is not a bubble", it's usually a sign that there is a bubble. Social gaming companies are commanding huge valuations and social games and casual MMOs are showing huge user numbers. This is a mini dotcom boom waiting to happen. As the opportunities to make money out of thin air with a quick IPO increase, so do the incentives to inflate subscriber numbers and revenues. It would be great to be proved wrong on this one, but I've got a hunch that one of the prominent companies in these sectors will experience a major, probably even fatal, blip in 2010.

That's not to say that social gaming won't be a major sector of the industry going forward. I think it will - the Facebook and iPhone app have replaced Solitaire and Minesweeper as the five minute timewasters of a new generation of office workers. (More on the psychology of boredom here.)

Bonus prediction: EA will bring its brands such as The Sims and FIFA to Facebook via Playfish, but the wider community will be nonplussed. Even The Sims is not a large brand compared to the user numbers that the likes of Mafia Wars and Farmville can boast.

Prediction: The rush to game-specific peripherals has been blunted

2010-01-05T04:25:00.000Z

The outright failure of Tony Hawk's RIDE, the relatively modest performance of DJ Hero and the slowing of sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band are signs that people have enough plastic peripherals in their homes--- and that in the case of RIDE, making the control of the game nearer to the real thing is sometimes a very Bad Idea.

Prediction: At least two more publisher mergers will be announced in 2010

2010-01-05T04:23:00.000Z

2009 saw less consolidation among third-party publishers than I was expecting, but I believe it's still on the cards for 2010. So who are the likely candidates?

Well, in Japan, Konami and Capcom are both going through rocky patches. Konami had a quiet 2009 with no major Metal Gear Solid release. They cancelled Six Days in Fallujah at a late date and have a lot riding on the new Castlevania title (now in development at Spanish studio Mercurysteam under the watchful eye of Hideo Kojima), as well as PSP title MGS: Peace Walker.

Capcom also had a few downs in 2009, with Bionic Commando falling short for instance and has recently slipped several high profile titles including Lost Planet 2 (which had a poor demo) and Dead Rising 2. On the other hand, Street Fighter IV was critically acclaimed and sold strongly.

In the West, THQ is looking rather weak. It used to have a bedrock of wrestling titles and licensed children's movie tie-ins and while it recently settled the long-running lawsuit over WWE rights, the movie tie-ins just aren't bringing in the bacon like they used to. It's also likely to record one of the first high-profile underperformers of the year with Darksiders.

Prediction: Codemasters will not survive 2010 in its current form

2010-01-05T04:19:00.000Z

I predict that long-established UK publisher Codemasters will finally run out of lives in 2010.

The departure of key staff is probably a warning sign and as it gets ever harder for a medium-sized generalist publisher to stay in business, something has to give. "Codies" has allegedly had trouble paying external developers in 2010 and has squandered cash on Far Eastern MMO conversions (not to mention the Dragon Empires fiasco that they airbrushed from history). Despite continued strong performance from its racing franchises, especially DIRT and GRID, 2009 saw a number of titles that have probably not brought in strong revenues, often seemingly due to poor marketing materials and spend (Overlord 2, FUEL) or tough market conditions and lengthy development (Operation Flashpoint 2).

I should point out that in the event of the company going to the wall, the core internal development teams are quite likely to be snapped up by another publisher looking to get into the racing genre. Personally, I feel that Codies should have refocused as a boutique racing game house at least 12 months ago.

Bonus prediction: Depending on how much was paid for it, Codemasters pulled a blinder by picking up the Formula One licence, with the 2009 season being one of the most open and exciting for years and 2010 looking like a mouthwatering prospect with a returning Schumacher facing the British McLaren dream team of Hamilton & Button, along with a reinvigorated Alonso & Massa. I predict that Codies will deliver a strong F1 game and it will sell well. Well enough to make enough money, given the license costs and the continued lack of major interest in F1 in the States, to stop it being their swansong?

Prediction: Riccitiello will not finish the year as Electronic Arts CEO

2010-01-05T04:14:00.000Z

I predict that Jon Riccitiello will be forced to stand down from his position as EA CEO sometime in 2010, because of a number of missteps by the company in 2008 and 2009, including:

Choosing to allow Pandemic to make an open world Batman game, leading to EA failing to release a game for the enormously successful The Dark Knight, costing EA an estimated $100m of revenue and leading to the closure of the Pandemic Brisbane
Pandemic LA's The Saboteur limping to a lacklustre release, resulting in the closure of the studio
Rock Band: The Beatles failing to set the world alight
Paying more than $250m for social gaming company Playfish, a move that probably makes long term sense but which has the feel of a company thrashing around for the next big thing

The Pandemic issues in particular are ones that Riccitiello can't shift blame for - he bought Pandemic and Bioware from his old company, Elevation Partners, for an eye watering $860m in 2007. Unless Bioware's Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, becomes a "World of Warcraft"-level success, this will have been a gross overvaluation, but nevertheless it saw Jon personally pocket $5m.

Having been displaced as the top Western third-party publisher by the Activision-Vivendi merger, 2009 was always going to be an awkward year for EA. The company is not used to being #2 at anything and has been slow to tackle the incredible middle-management bloat that holds it back like a huge ball and chain.

I believe that, as often is the case, past sins catch up with someone just as performance improves.

I think that 2010 will actually be a very strong year for EA. It's a (soccer) World Cup year and with FIFA 10 completing the turnaround in football game fortunes over the last three years (PES is now the game looking second-rate and tired and FIFA is now a bigger seller for EA than Madden), the "Road to South Africa" edition (or whatever they call it) will sell very well in the summer, even picking up some (moderate) sales in non-traditional territories such as the US, where the prospect of a US-England group game will pique interest.

The new Medal of Honor game, set in a modern-day Afghanistan, will deliver a more coherent and lengthier single-player campaign than Modern Warfare 2 and with DICE working on the multiplayer, may possibly even challenge its multiplayer dominance. Activision are not without their problems either we should add - Tony Hawk's RIDE has been a disaster for instance (more on that later).

EA's MMA game will be surprisingly good and sell well (but will still be heavily outsold by the new UFC title from THQ.) Bioware will have a strong year with Dragon Age posting good sales, Mass Effect 2 performing well and The Old Republic getting off to a (relatively) painless launch.

Bonus prediction: EA's lawsuit against repulsive trademark troll Tim Langdell will result in the termination of his marks, to much rejoicing.

Beers of the Month - November 2009

2009-12-01T08:21:00.002Z

Time has really flown this year and we're now into the cold months, so it is time for heavier, stronger brews. Notable beer outings in November were my annual Bonfire pilgrimage to Lewes, a cider and perry tasting at the office, a Brewdog tasting at the Rake (which included their limited edition "Shark") and the White Horse Old Ale festival at the end of the month.

This latter event boasted a truly excellent line-up of winter beers, including some UK greats on draught in the form of Thornbridge St. Petersburg, Bass P2 Imperial Stout, Gales Prize Old, Dark Star Imperial Stout and Thomas Hardy's Ale. However, my favourite beers of the festival, and thus my recommended beers for November are both Italian brews. Italy is not a country that many people would associate with fine beer. It is rather more well known for cars, shoes, wine and women but it is actually very much a rising star of the craft brewing world, with a number of artisinal brewers producing beers of superb quality.

Baladin Noel is a dark brown beer bursting with Christmas spices and rich fruit flavours. There's a peppery hint of alcohol at the finish, but if you would never guess it was 9% abv from drinking it. It's a sublime Christmas beer and my beer of the month for November.

Birra del Borgo Re Ale Extra provides a contrasting but equally excellent experience, as it is a robust IPA. A sublime nose of perfumy, floral and citrus hop notes leads into a wonderfully balanced sip. In the mouth it is lively and fresh with lots of peach and lycee flavours. I'm happy to highly recommend it!

Been there, done that, got the glass

2009-08-09T20:23:00.003+01:00

GBBF is done and dusted for another year. It hasn't really all settled in my mind yet, but as always, it was an immense pleasure to hang out and share beers with my fellow Ratebeerians. I've got about 70 rates to type up, including the ones from Chris's pre-GBBF tasting and the evening I spent at the Rake's Stone tasting. What makes this hobby so good? Mark Dredge has just put up a post on his blog that sums up the essence of why we drink superbly.

Beers of the Month - July 2009

2009-08-01T08:28:00.001+01:00

Drinking highlights in July included an afternoon of Hophead consumption in the Evening Star in Brighton, but the best moment of the month was getting to try some of the new 13th Anniversary Ale from Stone. It is my beer of the month for July. Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing, was over in London and was given an understandably warm welcome by the London Ratebeer crowd when he came to the Rake.

If you know the brewery, you won't be surprised to hear than the beer is a monster with tons of resinous hop flavours and aromas, great malts that manage to hold their own and a sublime finish.

My highly commended beer for July is Brewdog 77 Lager. This is their new lager, that supercedes Cult and Hop Rocker. It lives up to its billing as "a lager that actually tastes of something". An uncomplicated, but extremely drinkable beer, it will be my quaffing beer of choice from now on.

I love it when a prediction comes true

2009-07-26T22:42:00.000+01:00

Especially if it's one of mine :-D Microsoft quietly announced at E3 that they will be beginning downloads of full retail Xbox 360 titles in the Autumn and it has now been announced that the Games on Demand functionality will be introduced with the next dashboard update, due on August 11th (though you'll need to ferret around in that press release to spot it!) Now the question is how long before we start seeing larger hard disks for the 360 hitting the streets?

You like to shoot, so don't deny it

2009-07-13T23:55:00.001+01:00

In recent weeks I've been playing a new Xbox Live Arcade title straight out of Rotterdam, namely Rocket Riot from my friends at Codeglue. This is a title I was pitched back in 2006, when it was called So Square (it was also Jetpack Junkies before settling on the final title). It's a fun little pixel-based arena blaster with a very distinctive style and a lot of wackiness, in-jokes and humour. How often do you watch an opening cutscene that has to explain why noone has any legs? How many games these days have a theme song?

With a jetpack strapped to your backside and a rocket launcher in hand, you face off against wave after wave of pirates, zombies, ninjas, commandos, aliens (you get the picture) in a free-for-all blaster characterised by utterly destructible pixel scenery and few opportunities for breathing or blinking.

It is generally harder to gauge the likely success of multiplayer focused titles than singleplayer ones as they need a decent sized fanbase to succeed. When the game launches, it either captures gamers' imagination and quickly builds a fanbase or it is passed over and the multiplayer never really gets off the ground. The very nature of the beast makes it tough to predict whether you have a hit on your hands until the game is out in the wild and this is the main reason I didn't go out to bag the game back in 2006.

Rocket Riot offers a frenetic blasting experience but with its real-time, manic nature, I feel it doesn't offer a change of pace from most full-price boxed shooters. The side-on perspective brings Worms to mind but that game has carved itself a niche over the last decade and a half by, in my opinion, offering a singular experience of pressurised turn-based play cycle and artillery gameplay, boosted by a great weapon set and bags of charm.

However, Rocket Riot gives itself the best chance possible, with its distinctive art style and its quirky presentation. Only time, and sales figures, will tell if I made the right call or not. Help make me look like a fool by checking out the demo - and thank your lucky stars that Pete and the guys removed the GDC test level that was made out of my company mugshot!

Things I learned from videogames #8

2009-07-05T17:01:00.000+01:00

If you hear a phone ringing, even if it is just a payphone you happen to be walking past on the street, answer it. It will be something pretty important, such as a job offer. It will never be someone trying to sell you double-glazing or insurance.

Beers of the Month - June 2009

2009-07-01T22:26:00.000+01:00

My beer of the month is Brewdog's How to Disappear Completely which I sampled from the cask at the Rake. It's a completely bonkers beer: 3.5% ABV but packing an obscene 198 IBUs of bitterness, due to the brewers hopping it every which way they could with Columbus and Centennial hops.

Named after their favourite Radiohead track, Brewdog are dubbing it an "imperial mild". You have to love hops to enjoy this beer. The aroma is likely sticking your head in a sack of fresh hops and inhaling. On the tongue it is scorchingly bitter. You feel like you're either getting tongue cancer or being cured of it, and to be frank, you don't care which. In an earlier age, this would have been sold as a patent medicine. If you're down with the hops though, it is a delight as the sessionable strength means you can drink it for hours. Just don't expect to be able to properly taste what ever you drink directly after it.

It was a reasonably quiet month for drinking and no beer stands out to be highly commended, so instead I'll tip my hat to the wonderful samples of Harvey's beers provided on their superb brewery tour. Guinness may waffle on about waiting for two minutes for the perfect pint, but the waiting list for the Harvey's tour is over two years - and it is worth the wait. Ian Burgess was a superb host and incredibly generous to the Ratebeer crew, allowing us samples of some special brews, both old and new, and it was a great evening. The engraved souvenir tasting glass says it all: "Many a soul hath found good cheer in harmony with Harveys beer."

Tweet like you mean it

2009-06-22T20:46:00.004+01:00

Twitter is all the rage these days but you may be surprised to learn that I've started using it (as I'm usually a late-adopter or a never-adopter for most internet crazes.) However, I think I've hit on a sensible use for it; a lot of people ask me what trends I see among the game submissions I review, so I'm going to be tweeting what I assess each day (anonymised of course.) I hope that is something that people will be interested in.

You can either follow me via my username or just keep an eye on the Twitter box on the right hand side of this page. There will be some tweets about general game-related matters and replies to other people, but you can be assured that you won't have to read about the minutae of my daily life at any point.

If you decide to sign up for it yourself, I recommend this beginner's guide. If you want see something a bit left field being done with the service, one of my favourite webcomics writers (Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content) has set up twitter accounts for his characters, creating a form of SMS soap opera around the main comic.

It's good to think

2009-06-20T22:40:00.004+01:00

This blog has been rather neglected of late but I hope to change that in the weeks to come. I'm just back from a week in West Zealand, Denmark, where I was attending a "creative summit" with some of the top creatives in my company to thrash out some recommendations for our future strategy. The venue was excellent and it was wonderful to have no distractions and indulge in some impassioned debate about where we need to be headed. I feel really relaxed, inspired and yes, more creative for the experience. Hopefully this will benefit the blog!

Apart from the main discussions, I also won some money at poker and got to see some great demos of future titles (and no, I can't talk about them!) On the journey home I discovered a superb combination of confectionery and the undead - liquorice in the middle, fruit gummi on the outside - delectable.

True to the source material

2009-03-07T07:45:00.004Z

This morning I played the excellent Don't Look Back on Kongregate. It's a retelling of a well-known Greek myth and well worth playing to completion . You'll need some polished old-school platforming skills but the difficulty is manageable and the lack of loading times keeps frustration to a minimum.

Being charitable

2009-03-03T18:05:00.000Z

If you're not keen on swelling the coffers of the major US games retailers by trading used games for store credit at miserly rates of exchange, you should check out a new charity, Donate Games, that has just launched. You send them your unwanted games and receive a tax credit in return (since it is a charitable donation). They then sell the games to raise money. It is currently US only I'm afraid. Thanks to Game Politics for bringing them to my attention.

Closer to home, the UK games industry's main charity is now GamesAid, which superceded the more boringly titled (but highly effective) Entertainment Software Charity. They've got off to a good start and can hopefully weather the recession.

The best known gaming-related charity is Child's Play, founded by Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade fame, initially to show that gamers didn't conform to the media stereotype of being selfish and homicidal. I try and donate each year, sometimes by inflicting gaming torture on hapless Canadians.

Child's Play cunningly uses the Amazon Wishlist functionality to allow you to buy toys for specific children's hospitals in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt, cutting out middlemen and ensuring that children who really need the distraction that gaming can provide get the chance to enjoy it, whatever their family's circumstances. In addition to their numerous fund-raising events, you can also donate money directly online via PayPal, allowing you to get your compassion on, even on Sundays.

Things I learned from videogames #7

2009-02-20T09:00:00.002Z

If you work in a hazardous environment, such as an isolated research station, an underwater city, a deep space freighter or a secret military base, it is vital that you keep an detailed diary for posterity.

Trends in Gaming: 2009 will see downloads of full-sized retail X360 games via marketplace

2009-02-19T13:30:00.001Z

In my last post, I mentioned that the Blu-Ray drive has hobbled the PS3 in terms of price competitiveness. I believe that it has also led Sony down what could very well be a dead-end path in the form of game sizes. When the PS3 was announced, Sony emphasised the advantage that the 50Gb of storage on each Blu-Ray disc gave to developers. They exhorted them to fill that space with extra content for their games and pushed a ‘more data is better’ line. Their ‘hardware company’ mentality led them to set great store by their new storage medium.

However, this looks increasing short-sighted. There is a strong consensus in the games industry and in the wider media industries that we are moving towards full digital distribution of media products and that the question is not whether physical media will die off, but just how soon? Like many things predicted to revolutionise the industry, it will probably not happen as quickly as some people claim, but it is very definitely coming.

Viewed through this lens, Microsoft’s decision to stick to the 7Gb DVD format for the Xbox 360 looks quite sensible. Microsoft released an external HD-DVD drive, mainly to act as a spoiler against Sony’s Blu-Ray format rather than through any meaningful belief that HD-DVD would become a leading format. With hindsight, it is apparent that the company felt that it could get by with a DVD drive for now and that the next generation of consoles would not sport disc drives at all.

Furthermore, it is a lot quicker to download 7Gb than 50Gb. MS began laying the foundation for the move to digital distribution in December 2007 by selling Xbox 1 games via the Xbox Live Marketplace under the heading of 'Xbox Originals', releasing a title or two a month through 2008. I predict that we will see full Xbox 360 retail titles sold in a similar manner in the second half of this year. I think that the games will be early titles from the Xbox Classics range, possibly ones where the sequel will be releasing at retail in Q4 2009.

I expect that Microsoft will provide extensive reassurance to traditional retail outlets, emphasising that releasing old titles in this manner will drum up interest for new releases, promising that only games over a certain age will be considered for the service and possibly providing more marketing support to retailers as a sweetener. However, this will be the velvet glove around the iron fist, the decorative sash tied around the handle of the katana. The real agenda will be getting the consumer used to buying full titles by direct download. I expect to see significant price cuts on Xbox 360 hard disks during the year and possibly even a larger size than the current 120Gb drive to support this move.

This year’s move to allow gamers to install games to the hard disc (but still requiring the disc in the drive to play them) can also be considered to further this agenda, in addition to being a good feature in its own right.

So there you go - an easily testable prediction. See if I'm right come 31st December and mock/praise accordingly!

Trends in Gaming: Spring 2009 is a critical period for the PS3

2009-02-18T18:15:00.004Z

This post is less of a prediction and more of a summary of where things stand for Sony and the PS3 as 2009 rolls on. Sony are on the verge of posting a loss of over $1billion for their current financial year (to the end of March 2009) with the games division deep in the red.

Sony decided to not cut the price of the PS3 before Christmas 2008, choosing fewer sales at a higher price point over a sales boost at the expense of per-unit revenue. Unfortunately for them, with consumers becoming increasingly price-sensitive and the large price differential between the Xbox 360 & Wii and the pricier PS3 certainly hurt them when it came to sales. These numbers in particular look pretty nasty for the big black box.

Unfortunately for Sony, they don’t have much scope to cut the PS3 price, as the other divisions of the company, such as consumer electronics, movies and music are all being impacted by the recession. The price will certainly be cut in the spring, but how much? How consumers react will determine with 2009 is a good or bad year for the company. If sales pick up strongly, helped by the release of key first-party title Killzone 2 (due for release next week), then Sony should be able to make more headway at closing Microsoft’s installed base lead. However, if sales don’t show a significant uptick, Sony faces a tough year ahead. Microsoft has extremely deep coffers and its core Windows business is relatively recession-proof due to the ubiquity of the PC platform.

Microsoft can force the pricing of the Xbox 360 lower in response to Sony’s price-cut. As the economic downturn continues to bite, consumers are likely to be even more price conscious and Sony finds itself caught out by events, whereas Microsoft’s hand looks to be coming good. The Blu-Ray drive, which is mainly responsible for the high price of the console, now looks more of a burden that an advantage, for more than one reason (more of that in my next post!)

So are we looking at a 'high noon' moment for Sony? I certainly feel that if sales don't pick up over the spring, they may have to finally concede that they are not going to end up in #1 place this console generation. The global recession certainly provides them with some cover to admit to less than stellar performance. I wouldn't be surprised to see some Scooby Doo-esque statements around E3 time - "we would have gotten away with it as well, if it wasn't for that pesky recession!" It can certainly be argued that this would be healthy for Sony compared to the astronomical levels of hubris displayed in previous years.

Killzone 2 is also an interesting game to examine. It is getting good reviews and will undoubtedly help sales, but I don't feel that Killzone as a brand has become strongly linked to the core Playstation brand in the way that Halo and now Gears of War have becomed entwined with the Xbox brand (of course, that very closeness is a big factor in the difficulties Microsoft has had in expanding the Xbox 360 demographic away from core gamers!) Perhaps this is because the original game launched late in the PS2 lifecycle whereas it is usually games released at the console's launch or soon after that get associated with a platform in the collective consciousness. I don't think there is a big rump of people who are holding off buying a PS3 until Killzone 2 ships, whereas I'm fairly certain there were significant numbers of people who waited for the likes of Metal Gear Solid 4 (and may be waiting for Gran Turismo 5). The series just doesn't have that sort of fanatical following.

More "Trends in Gaming" later this week.

Trends in Gaming: 2009 will be the year DLC gets done right

2009-02-17T16:43:00.001Z

In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting a number of articles making predictions about the industry for the rest of the year.

As the year begins, I find myself looking forward to extra downloadable content (DLC) for many of the games I bought in 2008. The new Knothole Island area and items for Fable 2 (already out), the new maps (including the Dawn of the Dead Mall) and modes for Left 4 Dead, the Lost & the Damned expansion for GTAIV (out today), the Beneath the Ashes and Lara’s Shadow levels for Tomb Raider: Underworld - not to mention three separate sets of DLC for Fallout 3 (though I need to play the main game first in that instance).

We’ve come a long way from the "Horse Armor" debacle of 2006 and Bethesda, after that initial mis-step, are leading the way. The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine expansions are widely considered some of the very best pieces of DLC to date and people have high hopes for the Fallout 3 expansions.

All the content I’ve listed is premium content (PDLC) – you have to pay for it. Getting the pricing and message for DLC right is of vital importance to publishers as gamers are liable to react badly if they feel (whether rightly or wrongly) that content was cut from the main game so that it could be sold to them for further money at a later date. PDLC that is exclusive to one format is an explosive mixture, as format holders’ non-disclosure agreements will almost certainly prevent the publisher and developer adequately explaining the situation to the consumer. The furore over the TRU content that still rages on the Tomb Raider messageboards is a very good example of this.

Despite these potential pitfalls, in 2009 DLC will become a key part of the console gaming landscape. Publishers are beginning to get a feel for what is the right price and understanding the kind of backlash that poor pricing choices can lead to. DLC keeps your consumer coming back to your game and makes them think twice about trading it in, helping to combat the pressure that used game sales are putting on new sales. Publishers have to give a cut of PDLC sales to the format holders but this is preferable to retail, where they are giving a cut to the retailer and the wholesale distributor on top of paying the format holder's licence fee and manufacturing costs. This is a huge incentive to publishers to maximise revenues and customer retention via prudent releases of DLC .

Perhaps even more importantly, there is fast becoming an assumption among consumers that all A-grade titles will be supported after release with DLC and once this is fully embedded in the consumer mindset, titles that don’t conform will be increasingly seen as second rate. Looking at the Christmas just gone, it is already hard to cite major titles that don't have at least some form of DLC in the pipeline. The Lost and The Damned is getting good reviews and is a major chunk of content, with hefty in-store promotion in the form of a branded points card. It is likely to set the trend for major expansions to the original game, set in the same city, as opposed to the Liberty City, Vice City, San Andreas progression of full-game releases in the PS2 era.

It should also be noted that the extensive catalogues of songs being released for the competing Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises are also doing a great deal to break down barriers to people buying additional content for their games by direct download.

Personally, I'm pleased to have an excuse to go back to games for a second blast and it gives people who missed a game the first time round a chance to jump in, safe in the knowledge that other people will be playing the game (I'll be trying to get MuppetThumper to try Left 4 Dead when the DLC hits).

Stay tuned for more predictions!

No more missing pieces

2009-02-03T10:00:00.001Z

Continuing my "games with Puzzle in the title" start to the year, the second XBLA game that I completed in January was Puzzle Arcade. This is a jigsaw puzzle game (the reason that "jigsaw" doesn't appear in the title is that it is not used to describe this sort of puzzle outside of the English-speaking world) that I signed for Eidos in 2006. The original design (then called "Fractal Jigsaw") came from Say Design in California and the 'heavy lifting' was done by CTXM in Latvia.

The thinking behind the project was to find a universally understood casual gaming concept that could support multiplayer play and hopefully emulate the huge success of Uno on the platform. Jigsaws are enjoyed all around the world and an electronic version offers big advantages over the traditional form - you don't have to worry about losing pieces, it doesn't take up your dining table for days at a time, you can work on many puzzles at once, you can get assistance if you are stuck and you can attempt puzzles that would be too large to complete in your house. The original design envisaged a massively mutliplayer element to the game; hundreds of players would be able to collaborate to complete enormous puzzles, much bigger than the largest real-world puzzles, of perhaps even millions of pieces. These larger puzzles would be split down with each piece being made up of smaller pieces, and those smaller pieces being likewise divided, hence the 'fractal' part of the title.

Unfortunately, the server backend requirements for this feature stopped it being cost-effective and the massively multiplayer feature was cut (the fractal puzzles remain). However, the finished game is still a fun collection of jigsaws with a good variety of single and multiplayer modes and while it is not going to review highly due to the type of game it is, it is good to see that many people who have played it really enjoyed it. As for me, I've beaten the challenge mode but I'm going to need to put a lot of time aside to get the 'Kilopiece Colossus' achievement for completing a 1000-piece puzzle.

If you own an Xbox 360 connected to the internet and you've not played Puzzle Arcade yet, I have got five unlock codes for the full game that I am giving away to the first five random internet denizens who read this and drop me an email. Email blog at unfriendlyghost.com with the subject line "Puzzle Arcade competition".

Beers of the Month - January 2009

2009-02-02T13:58:00.003Z

My Beer of the Month is Bracia from Thornbridge Hall, which I tried at the Thornbridge tasting at the Rake. This is very special stuff from a brewery that is beginning to really make waves on the back of some superb beers. Their St. Petersburg Imperial Stout wowed me before Christmas, their Jaipur IPA is quickly becoming a UK classic and the selection of beers at the tasting didn’t disappoint. Bracia has a complex taste with hazelnut, chocolate, coffee and truffle flavours from the malts balance by a dazzling array of hops and the sublime signature ingredient, chestnut honey. There’s more information about the beer on their website and Bracia can be bought direct from the brewery at £5 per 500ml bottle. It’s worth it.

My Highly Commended beer for January, comes most gratifyingly, from a new micro-brewery in my local area. Sambrook’s Brewery is located very near to my old office in Battersea. They only started brewing in November 2008, but their first beer, Wandle Ale, a 3.8% session bitter, is extremely drinkable. The choice of Fuggles and Golding hops and Maris Otter malt is quintessentially English and I feel that you could slot the resultant beer into the range of say, Harvey’s, and nobody would be any the wiser. It’s great to have a new craft brewery opening up on my doorstep and with the news that Young’s may open a microbrewery as part of their planned museum on the Ram Brewery site, the year has started on a positive note in the SW postcodes. Wandle Ale is available in free houses across South West London (with Dave’s help, I tracked it down in the Magpie & Crown) so do your bit to support a fledging brewery by sampling it.

A puzzling start to the year

2009-02-02T12:20:00.006Z

Late last year, I had a bet with my friend the MuppetThumper that I could finish all the Xbox 360 retail games that I owned on the last day 2008 by the last day of 2009. This means that I need to complete over 20 X360 titles in the year, on top of whatever new games I decide to play (and I have nine systems to choose from!) Of course, as a zen master of displacement activity, I immediately set to playing XBLA games rather than retail ones. Thus the first game I completed in 2009 was the excellent Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords from Infinite Interactive.

If you're a regular gamer, Puzzle Quest probably doesn't need much of an introduction. Its marriage of the addictive match-3 gameplay of Bejeweled with a traditional fantasy setting, evolved from Infinite's long-running Warlords series of games, made it one of the cult hits of 2007, particularly on DS. I was actually shown the game in prototype form at GDC 2005, their agents demoing on a laptop in the coffee area. It was clear that the basic gameplay was fun and easy to grasp, but the game faced big hurdles. Infinite were (and still are) a small developer, located in Australia (a long way from most publishing head offices) with a track record of fantasy RPG games (not a sexy genre for videogame execs) and 'casual gaming' had not yet penetrated into the industry consciousness to the point where CEOs were chasing a non-core gamer demographic or developers churning out clones. The game would have been laughed out of our boardroom at the time and so I didn't push hard to sign it. Thankfully for all of us, D3 Publisher had the vision to sign the game and thus reaped the rewards - the game is currently available on DS, PSP, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii and IPhone.

If you've not played the game, be warned that it is exceedingly addictive - true "digital crack". In the process of completing it, I played past 3am, to the point where I could barely focus my eyes. Genre-combining games often fail because one part of the game is neglected or simply more poorly executed than the rest, but in this case, the game away from actual combat is lovingly crafted. There's depth to the RPG elements (the different classes play very differently for one thing) and the writing stops the storyline descending to high camp melodrama through the injection of some good humourous touches such as Khalkus, a dwarf who just won't shut up and Drong, a troll with an insatiable appetite. This article on Gamasutra puts forward a theory on why the RPG genre was the perfect fit for this sort of game design mash-up but Penny Arcade's take sums up many people's initial reactions to the game.

Shortly, we'll need to begin calling it by its full name, as the hex-based sci-fi themed sequel, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, is almost upon us - you can try a demo at their website.

I've got a good feeling about this!

2008-12-31T23:52:00.002Z

Left 4 Dead is my Game of the Year 2008 and here's why - coming soon!

Beers, Brewers and Beer Festivals of the Year 2008

2008-12-31T21:29:00.018Z

This year has been a fruitful one for me on the drinking front. Due to Ratebeer being down for most of November, I'm not up to date with my rates, but I estimate that I sampled close to 800 new beers in 2008. There were some exceptional brews among them and if 2009 is even as half as good to me, I'll be a happy man.

Four beer festivals that I attended stand out this year. In February, I was able to attend the Battersea Beer Festival for the first time since 2004 as I wasn't attending Casual Connect in Amsterdam, which had caused me to miss the previous three years. I had a great time hanging out with Maria, Ang, Mes and some of the other Ratebeerians. I had a half dozen superb milds during the festival but the highest score I gave out was for the Alvinne Balthazar (a bottled Belgian ale).

August brings GBBF, the Great British Beer Festival, staged in Earls Court. I took the whole week off work and was able to relax and drink my way through some wonderful beer in the always-pleasant company of the Ratebeer crew. I got through 100 beers in the week and it's very hard to pick a single best one from the top half dozen. De Molen Tsarina Ezra and Lost Abbey Angel's Share are both incredible beers but for something you could drink every day, I'd say Brewdog Speedball. "Class A Strong Ale" indeed.

The following month saw the inaugral European Beer Festival in Copenhagen. This counts as my main holiday of the year I guess - I stayed in the stylish Hotel Fox with Maria and sallied forth to spend a nearly obscene amount of money on beer. I have so many good memories from the trip - standing outside Ølbutikken on a cold Saturday morning for the special Mikkeller "Six Pack" release (120 beer geeks drinking Beer Geek Breakfast for breakfast - superb!) , finally getting my hands on some Kaggen Stormaktsporter again after losing my GBBF 2007 rates, Royce's giant measure of Mikkeller Black, the deserted Heineken bar (with its stunning barmaids), the 'moshpit' around Stand 28 at each Mikkeller hourly release, Maria's tales of her night out with Christian and Jens, drinking 8% American Double IPA for breakfast, playing table football with FatPhil, paying £5 a pint for rubbish beer in the hilarious Scottish theme pub during the post-festival come-down and enjoying a final beer at the Norrebro bar in the airport with Ang. This was the festival of the year for me - outstanding beer, superb company and a lovely atmosphere. Choosing a beer of the festival is very hard, so I'm going to recommend Amager Herr Frederiksen, De Molen Steen & Been and Avery The Maharaja, on top of the Kaggen and anything from Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (see below).

Last but not least, the quietly excellent Eastbourne Beer Festival in October. I picked this festival as it gave me an excellent opportunity to catch up with Roger from the Beachy Head Brewery. He didn't let me down - giving an enjoyable talk on the brewery (with Charlie), showing off his elite Morris Dancing skills and taking home the award for Sussex microbrewed beer of the festival for Legless Rambler! It was a very well-run festival - lots of seating, decent entertainment, a great selection of beers in very good condition, filling food and a good vibe. More info on how it went can be found here. My personal favourite beer of the festival was Welton's Horsham Old Ale.

Picking a brewery of the year is actually easier than choosing a beer of the year, especially as I'm minded to choose a brewery that I wasn't aware of twelve months ago. That said, I'm still going to go with two choices - Bryggeriet Djævlebryg of Copenhagen and Brewdog of Fraserburgh.

Bryggeriet Djævlebryg (literally 'The Brewery Devil's Brew', but I think 'The Devil's Brewery' is a better translation in terms of sense) stood out in the Copenhagen programme with their stylish logo and their unique twist on a charity beer. I worked my way through their restrained seven beer range and can say that there isn't a bad beer among them. For the sheer strength-in-depth quality of their line-up, they've earned the title of brewery of the year. Here's to more from the purveyors of "Satan's Good Ale" in 2009.

On the other side of the North Sea, Brewdog ended up in the headlines when the Portman Group (the drinks industry's own watchdog) attacked them over the wording on some of their labels. However, you should already be following them as they are (in my opinion) showing the way that a new UK micro should conduct themselves. Superb beers backed with bags of attitude, great branding and a sense of adventure. Not content with producing superb Imperial Stouts barrel-aged in whisky casks, they also make very decent amber ales and lagers, not to mention a mild, Edge, that Ratebeer (and I) currently consider the best in the world! They kick off 2009 with an exciting plan to make a true British IPA and able to celebrate a victory for common sense over the Portman Group. More power to their elbow in 2009!

I enjoy reading maeib's Beer of the Month posts on his blog and I'm going to try and post in a similar fashion here in 2009 but for now, here are a few more beers that caught my eye in 2008 and which you really should check out. I may come back to some of these and talk a bit more about them if I get the time. All the beers I recommend in the festival section make this list as well, of course.

Session beers

Alehouse NCR21
Bowman Quiver
Bowman Swift One
Mikkeller Draft Bear (well, I consider it sessionable!)

Milds

Brewdog Edge
Hobson's Mild

Strong dark beers (porters & stouts)

Harvey's Gunpowder (yes, finally got hold of some - thanks Ang!)
Thornbridge St. Petersburg
Brewdog Paradox Smokehead

IPAs

Stone Ruination
Mikkeller Simcoe IPA
Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA

Sours

Phil's Wild Mild (Valley Brew Stockton Sour)
Mikkeller Blueberry Lambic
Rodenbach Vin de Cereale

Other

St. Sylvestre 3 Monts
Ayinger Weiss Bock
Kunkel Alter Kahlgrunder Speierling Apfelwein ;-)

Special beer moment of the year: people who know me well will know that on election days, I like to stay up all night and watch the results come in (while drinking) and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Barack Obama's historic victory on November 4th/5th. I toasted the moment the result became offical with a large bottle of Stone Arrogant Bastard and it tasted fantastic! Interesting note: the beer served at Obama's victory party came from well-regarded local Chicago brewery Goose Island. McCain opted for Budweiser courtesy of his wife's distribution company for his event. Says it all really!

Wrapping things up, here are the beers that I will be seeing the New Year in with. I'm going to finish off 2008 with bottles of Brewdog Zeitgeist and Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and then start 2009 with a bottle of Avery New World Porter. It's a new world out there, baby so here's to drinking more fantastic beers in 2009!

Live music is a delight for the soul

2008-09-11T19:26:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday I went to see my friend Paul Collins' band, Kill the Captains, play a gig at the Good Ship in Kilburn. I'd not been to a gig in ages and I'd forgotten just how great listening to a good band play live makes you feel. It was also really nice to see Paul for the first time in three years or so! I really should get up to Sheffield more often.

There were six or seven acts playing that night and I caught the last four.

The Vaudeville Class are a three piece who play simple tunes with catchy riffs. They reminded me of The White Stripes and on the tracks where they cranked up the feedback, Zen Guerilla. The delivery during the chorus of "Lost Faith" also reminded me of early Black Sabbath.

Kill The Captains are described on one of their flyers as "like Sonic Youth playing at a school disco" and that's as good a description as I could come up with, I reckon. I enjoyed Paul's previous band, Porlock, and some of the wistfulness of their album remains, now fused with a full-on rocking heaviness. It's always great to watch a band with huge amounts of on-stage energy who are obviously enjoying themselves. Ferocious set-closing new track "Cellar Dweller" (not hard to guess which recent events inspired that) was awesome and could only have been improved by Leon making a Cobain-esque dive into the drum kit.

Audioporn were the penultimate act and provided an immediate visual contrast, taking to the stage in Hives-esque white suits, as opposed to Kill The Captains everyday clothes. I'm generally sceptical of bands who dress up too much and while they were undoubtedly catchy in places, the frontman plainly thinks too much of himself and the nearly 'spoken word' delivery in places left me cold. Cute keyboard player though.

The final act were The I Hearts, who really impressed me. They sound like a mix of Elastica, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey, The Distillers and NY Loose (all bands I really like!) The effect is further accentuated by great stage presence for a three-piece and a frontwoman who appears to be the bastard daughter of a threesome between Beatrice Dalle, Brody Armstrong and Justine Frischmann. Very much up my street. I grabbed a sampler CD at the first opportunity.

A week on Saturday I'm going to the Earth Vs The Wildhearts 15th Anniversary gig, and while it'll be great to hear one of my all-time favourite bands playing straight through the album and b-sides that turned me on to them, after last weekend I'm determined to go and see more new and/or unsigned bands soon.

The Thrill of Discovery

2008-09-11T11:30:00.002+01:00

Discovered and read a very interesting book yesterday. It may make a big difference to me. Check back in a year or so.

Things I'm not doing (yet)

2008-09-09T00:06:00.002+01:00

Unpacking Wii Fit. Getting ready for the European Beer Festival in Copenhagen this weekend. Writing up my thoughts on the gig that I went to on Saturday night at the Good Ship.

Things I learned from videogames #6

2008-09-02T01:05:00.002+01:00

Where there's a crate, there's a way.

Wow, it's been a long time

2008-08-13T21:04:00.003+01:00

There I was, happily blogging away, when real life got in the way a little bit, in the form of upheaval at work mainly. Thankfully, things have mostly sorted themselves out now and I'm hopefully going to be able to post regularly again.

Since I last posted, I've put a lot of time into a number of games, all of which I hope to say something about in coming weeks: Crackdown, Eternal Sonata, The World Ends With You, Mass Effect, Soul Bubbles, Boom Blox, Ticket to Ride, Braid, Elite Beat Agents, Age of Conan, and today, the Fable 2 Pub Games on XBLA.

Some people would argue that gambling is no fun unless it's for real money, but I disagree. I find it strangely relaxing (and almost hypnotic after a while), particularly card games, and Fortune's Tower (the card game in the package) definitely delivers, with its constant stick-or-twist dilemma. Keystone is a more complex form of craps and is good fun too. But the weak link is the Spinnerbox games, which are effectively increasingly complex 'pure chance' fruit machines - pay your money, hit the button, see if you win (but mostly you lose. A lot.)

Despite them, if you enjoy frittering away virtual coinage on games of chance, check out the trial version. If you later buy Fable 2, you can use the game to gamble with your in-game gold, which sounds like a good idea, but will probably lead to virtual bailiffs, virtual gamblers anonymous meetings, etc. Just remember:

Things I learned from videogames #5

2008-04-06T23:01:00.001+01:00

The career choice that gives you the most transferable skills is 'plumber'.

GDC stuff: Layton's apprentice saves the day!

2008-04-02T15:55:00.001+01:00

As planned, immediately after arriving in San Francisco, I went and picked up a copy of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I was chuffed to find it sitting next to Prism: Light the Way and Pony Friends, both of which, friends of mine worked on.

Nintendo were pushing the game hard, which was very pleasing to see, especially as I would not have considered it a 'first rank' title for them. Apart from bus stop adverts and ones plastered directly onto the sidewalk, they also had these fellows roaming the area handing out postcards (pic courtesy of Ricky)

Ricky has a detailed review of the game up over on Dinomo, so I recommend you check that out. His opening paragraph is about as close to a perfect description of the art style of the game as you are going to get. I got very hooked on it and I finished the game before I left SF for the UK. The art is wonderful, the puzzles are wonderfully varied and the difficulty curve is spot on. "Lovingly crafted" covers pretty much everything in the game. It's well worth importing a copy and I am sure the game will be in my top ten games of 2008 come the end of the year.

The game also caught the imagination of many of the gaming web comics and here are some of their takes on Professor Layton.

Penny Arcade
God Mode Online
Dueling Analogs

If you too enjoyed the game, there is good news on the horizon with the sequel, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, apparently due for release in Japan in November. Nintendic also have a nifty photo of a less than 100% English and rather more excitable Layton from the Japanese TV ad.

GDC stuff: IGF finalists

2008-04-01T00:18:00.007+01:00

One thing that I found particularly pleasing at GDC was the vibrancy and rude health of the Independent Games Festival. The IGF finalists had a section of the North Hall devoted to them and you could walk along the lines of demo pods and try a great variety of interesting games, while chatting to their creators. Ricky spent even longer there than I did and we spent a lot of time at the weekend comparing notes and discussing the games. You can find the full list of finalists on the IGF website, along with download links for many of the games. Which are your favourites?

I'm looking forward to playing the full versions of Iron Dukes and Crayon Physics in particular. I was really excited by Battelships Forever, but having played it, I think it could do with being slowed down considerably so that you can use your tactical options in a more considered fashion. I'd already played Fret Nice, Cinnamon Beats and Globulos before GDC (through my work) and they are all worth checking out. Ricky highly recommends Ookiblocks and The Misadventures of P.J. Winterbottom.

GDC stuff: "Unannounced: The Game"

2008-03-31T17:05:00.003+01:00

I mentioned that Kyle Gray was rumoured to be announcing his new DS project at GDC and indeed, he did, referring to it as "Unannounced: The Game". I won't bother describing it as I advise you to check out the videos below for yourself and make your own mind up.

Here's the footage - I suggest that it is best to the view the videos in this order:

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17596
http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17595
http://gamevideos.com/video/id/17593

“And then you go on a killing rampage, because that’s what English people in giant mechs do.” Awesome.

Other coverage of the "Tale of Two Kyles" talk can be found at these news outlets:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166364

http://www.gamedev.net/columns/events/gdc2008/article.asp?id=1126

New look

2008-03-30T13:15:00.003+01:00

I've now got a colour scheme and a layout for the blog that I'm very happy with and likewise a great header, achieved with a little help from my best friend Dave. He's currently working on a very different sort of beer rating site, which I'm really looking forward to seeing. In the meantime, check out his lovely Colourcountry.

GDC stuff: Pick a card, any card

2008-03-11T08:02:00.003Z

This year I caught up (once again) with Randy Pitchford, head of Gearbox Software. Apart from being a great guy to talk business with, Randy is also an accomplished magician. He was inspired to take up magic by the fact that his great uncle was the celebrated magician, Cardini.

He always has a pack of cards in his pocket and if you ask nicely, he's happy to bust out a few tricks, which is a refreshing break from the endless grind of commercial meetings. I love talents/skills that people can take anywhere with them and it's great to be utterly bemused by simple sleight of hand now and then.

Also, Gearbox are doing some interesting projects at the moment - Borderlands, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and a game based on a movie you might have heard of.

GDC stuff: No-one's gonna eat your eyes

2008-03-11T07:56:00.009Z

The highlight of my week at GDC was seeing Jonathan Coulton perform live at the Steam party.

The set list was (as I recall) :

The Future Soon
Code Monkey
I Feel Fantastic
Re: Your Brains (a great singalong - I can sing as a zombie!)
Skullcrusher Mountain

and...

...culminated in a rousing performance of Still Alive inside Rock Band, ably supported by Harmonix dudes on guitar, bass and drums, and cheered on by pretty much everyone in the place.

GLaDOS would have been proud. Give that man some cake.

GDC stuff: Naming

2008-03-03T07:39:00.002Z

The best possible name for an outsourcing studio specialising in graphical assets for FPS games is ALREADY TAKEN.

Things I learned from videogames #4

2008-02-17T19:18:00.002Z

It is unwise to store your valuables in prominently displayed, extremely fragile earthenware vessels.

Out there having fun, in the warm California sun

2008-02-17T18:44:00.002Z

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco. As usual, I've not begun packing until the last minute, choosing instead to play Mercury Meltdown Revolution and Zendoku.

I don't get to attend any of the talks at the conference as I'm stuck in meetings all day every day, but I was intrigued by the following rumour on Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars regarding an announcement by Kyle Gray regarding the new original DS title he is working on. Kyle Gray is the founder of The Experimental Gameplay Project so he knows his gameplay onions. He now works for EA Tiburon in Florida.

Surfer Girl wrote the following:

"The title Kyle Gray is toiling on over at Tiburon is not just good, is not just addictive and utterly intoxicating, it is a sublime experience that is the best DS game coming out this year. Maybe he'll say something about it next week, maybe Tuesday, maybe between 10 and 11 AM. "

Always good to see more original titles for DS. Speaking of which, I'll be picking up Professor Layton and the Curious Village as soon as I arrive in SF.

Things I learned from videogames #3

2008-02-11T22:01:00.000Z

Anything worth doing once is worth doing three times.

This season's must have accessory

2008-02-10T18:18:00.000Z

Punchknives.

Kane's

Altair's

The best four letter word

2008-02-10T17:39:00.000Z

Yes, I'm talking about beer, my other hobby. I spent the second half of the week attending the 18th Battersea beer festival, sampling more than 50 different real ales from around the UK and beyond. I had a great time, due to excellent beer and excellent company but I'm certainly going to be taking it easy for a while after consuming a prodigious quantity of the lovely stuff.

Expect to see more posts regarding beer in the future, but for the moment, if you're interested in what I've been drinking, have a look at my Ratebeer page, which can be found here. Ratebeer is an excellent resource for keeping track of beers you've drunk, finding interesting new beers to drink and interesting places to drink them in. I heartily recommend it.

One of the hot topics in the real ale world is "beer matching" which means partnering certain styles of beer with certain types of food, in the same way that different wines are paired up with different dishes. I think it's a great initiative as it will help people realise that there is as a great a variety of beer as there is of wine and that beer is perfectly good alternative to drink with a meal.

It also got me thinking as to whether the concept of beer matching could be extended to games. I regularly enjoy a glass or two of a good ale whilst I game and I think there's potential to recommend certain styles to go with certain game genres. A rich old ale to be drunk slowly while contemplating your turn in a strategy game, a hoppy pale ale to be quaffed between rounds of a FPS and perhaps a mild for sipping during the lengthy cutscenes of a Japanese RPG. Cheers!

Things I learned from videogames #2

2008-01-23T00:25:00.000Z

Castles are like pockets. The thing you are looking for is never in the first one you look in.

War? It's good for targeted advertising.

2008-01-22T21:41:00.000Z

Over the last few days I've been enjoying Warbook - a little kingdom sim on Facebook. You try and grow your kingdom by conquest, building an army to invade other kingdoms and steal their land and gold (and presumably put their villages to fire and of course, the sword) which leads to retaliation against your kingdom, which in turn suffers the same fate.

Balancing the various building types on your land is key to success. You can build mines for cash, forts for defence, training grounds for attack, barracks to reduce unit costs and amplifiers and barriers to improve magical attack and defence; BUT the bonuses are based on the percentage of your land devoted to that building type, so it is a constant balancing act. Likewise, your army (with various unit types) is expensive to keep - have too big a standing army and you will be secure, but your treasury will be so empty you won't be worth robbing anyway. On the other hand, keep too small a garrison, and while you will earn lots of cash, much of it will be stolen from you regularly.

You can also choose from a variety of starting classes that give you bonuses to some skills and different elite units. I'm playing as a Magician, so I can magic gold out of thin air into my coffers and hurl fireballs at my opponents' armies. Sweet.

As a Facebook (and Bebo) app, the game is free to play, but features ads on some screens. I'd probably be prepared to pay a couple of pounds for an ad-free version, simply because I don't want to see yet another video banner for Adam Sandler's latest opus. I can live with the rest.

1191AD

2007-12-23T22:02:00.000Z

I got a bit distracted, but I promised that the next post would concern Assassin's Creed and so here it is. There are some things to dislike in it, as can be seen from the various low-scoring reviews, but overall the game does an excellent job of immersing you in a world and then giving you mastery over it. In particular, Altair's animation is superb and climbing in particular feels very realistic. I found myself able to forgive the repetitive objectives because I was just enjoying being in the world. It is definitely a game that does the little things right and with great attention to detail.

The setting, unfamiliar in a videogame context, is a key part of the immersion - the bustling streets of 12th century Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem are far more interesting and vibrant than any number of deserted moon bases and post-apocalyptic wastelands.

Some people have criticised the combat, but I found that as soon as you get the short blade back, things really open up with brutal counterattacks allowing you to finish fights in seconds. I've left the game having completed about a third and will return to it in the New Year.

How ace is XBLA?

2007-11-26T08:45:00.000Z

On Saturday, I mainly played Xbox Live Arcade games. I knocked
Assault Heroes on the head with Andy, played Carcassone against the AI, finished off the time attack mode in Geon and then, late in the evening, downloaded Word Puzzle and spent far too long playing through the main mode. The last levels are very tricky, especially at 4am when you can barely focus on the screen.

I was struck by how much I've come to take the simplicity and ease of use of the XBLA system for granted. New titles are flagged up for me, I download a trial, and if I like it, a few button presses are all that is needed to debit my stored credit card and unlock the full game. I don't even have to shift on my beanbag. It's a far cry from mailing an order to Special Reserve and then waiting a couple of weeks for the postman to bring your game in a jiffy bag. The sheer ease of buying new games on the service has definitely contributed to my extensive use of it. I've got 30 or so Arcade games and the majority were purchased rather than free with codes. The dip-in, dip-out nature of the games is something I've come to rely on and many evenings I find myself not touching a retail game at all.

That said, Sunday was mainly spent playing Assassin's Creed (aka Jade's Game) - more on that in the next post.

Things I learned from videogames #1

2007-11-26T01:27:00.000Z

Never loiter next to a barrel.

Dormant ****ing blogs

2007-11-22T00:45:00.000Z

Grr. Denied my favoured address by a blog with one post on it. From 2005. Grrrr.