I love it when a prediction comes true

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.