E3 Roundup & Comment

This article has also been hosted on the VG Resource. Abridged Versions of this article have also been hosted at The Yorker.

While the Electronic Entertainment Expo of 2011 is still in progress, the conferences for the 3 big names, Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo are done and dusted. The in-depth details of what’s on offer has already been plastered all over other gamine news sites (and no doubt your Facebook and Twitter accounts); but this is just a little summary of what stood out to me.


I’ve always taken E3 with a pinch of salt. While it’s the major US event for games publishers to share new projects and releases with the masses, it all boils down to the hard sell. The presentation of the publisher conferences matters just as much as the products they’re trying to market, and they don’t always do the job well.

 

Microsoft
The Xbox 360 played very close to its strengths this year; a user base with a high percentage of shooter enthusiasts (of which I am definitely not), and a still-developing market in the Kinect. Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft Entertainment, informed us early on that the exclusives this year would show heavy support for the Kinect, and they definitely kept to that through the conference.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the perfect blend of Shooter and Kinect-bait. The gesture controls and voice recognition were used to create a very intuitive-looking customisation menu system; but part of me feels that such a cool concept is a little wasted on gun fetishism. On the other hand, the gesture controls for the actual combat look so entirely ridiculous that any sense of coolness flew right out of the window.

Part of the demographic for the Kinect is of course young children; so to demonstrate Kinect Disneyland Adventures (Essentially Kinect Adventures! with a Disney theme) and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, stage-ready, rosy-cheeked children were wheeled onto the stage. These kids are always annoyingly saccharine and are good for a chuckle. But on the other hand, can you imagine these child-demographic games being demonstrated only by adults? Creepy.

Kinect Funlabs is a new e-store where you can download experimental Kinect software other developers have made. There’s a huge ‘homebrew’ community for the Kinect, and Microsoft did a good job of harnessing it. I hope we don’t have to pay for the demos though; they look very bare-bones. The conference was wrapped up with a short trailer for Halo 4; which caught me by surprise – Bungie said that after Halo Reach, they weren’t intending to produce another main-series Halo game. So either Bungie loves consumer money too much to keep their word, or Microsoft is using another developer to keep the cash cow running. Not cool.


 
Sony
Sony offered a much wider range of genres than Microsoft this time around, but they really pushed the PS3′s 3D functions, just like how almost all of the 360 exclusives sported Kinect. Of course, the 3D effect was entirely wasted on us paupers watching the conference through the internet.

There were a lot of solid titles that definitely garnered my interest. Uncharted 3, which was a bit moodier and grittier than I’d like still impressed me with its brighter action scenes in Arabia. inFamous 2 still has me incredibly hyped, but there was nothing that we didn’t already know. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time will hopefully be a great sequel to the PS2 games I remember fondly, but I’m sad they got rid of the cartoonish cel-shading.

They also announced some new IPs in Starhawk, a game with an aesthetic cross between Borderlands and Halo, but looking to promise standard-fare shooter action; and Medieval Moves: Deadman’s Quest, which looked like a reasonable first-person action adventure game, but it reminded me heavily of a tech demo demonstrated for the PS Move last year – featuring a similar setting, but a magic-using protagonist. It looked much less polished than this effort, but a lot more enticing in terms of mechanics.

Some of the games mentioned were not specifically Sony exclusives, but instead would have bonus content or Playstation Move functionality; which smacked of them being unconfident in the lineup of exclusives they had. Don’t sweat it Sony, you’re doing just fine. But next time you get 2K Games to demonstrate their next NBA 2K game, don’t have them go by halves. Kobe Bryant can’t hold a candle to the glorious Shaq.

The official announcement of the Sony Vita is a surprise to few (even the name of the then-titled NGP was released a few days back, along with some of its planned titles), but the lineup for release games is looking a lot stronger than the 3DS’ effort. Diablo-clone Ruin and fighter’s dream Street Fighter X Tekken are the titles that have me salivating, but then there’s no guarantee they’ll actually be available any time soon.

The incredibly competitive price of $249 to directly compete with the 3DS is definitely throwing down the gauntlet. The Vita pulls ahead in terms of sheer graphical brunt, but otherwise they’re both host to some very similar features. It’ll come down to the games support in the end.


 
Nintendo
While Nintendo wasn’t the only company to be releasing new hardware this year, they had been keeping the cards much closer to their chest than Sony has been with the PS Vita. That alone accounted for much of the anticipation for Nintendo’s conference, and they rode that out for as long as they could.

The first section of the conference showed no hint of new hardware info; instead detailing the variety of Legend of Zelda game releases for the 25th Anniversary for the series. A free DSi download of 4 Swords Adventures was what piqued my interest the most, along with the announcement of a soundtrack CD for Skyward Sword… though we probably won’t see that released over in the UK.

Now that’s over, is it time for the hardware announcement? Psyche! It’s 3DS release time. This is still fairly a big deal, but I watched with a hint of scepticism. Last year the support for the 3DS was huge, with many big names like Metal Gear Solid and Kingdom Hearts poised to be released. But the games available on release have been pretty weak, and that wasn’t looking to change. So Nintendo looked to fix that failing with some solid first-party support. And they definitely brought forward some big names.

Mario Kart and Kid Icarus Uprising are my picks of choice, with Mario Kart showing off customisable cars and tracks where your craft can transform into a hang glider or submarine; and Kid Icarus demonstrating some charmingly bad voice acting, and gameplay that heavily reminds me of Sin and Punishment.
Then the Nintendo eShop was brought up. It’s the marketplace system for the Nintendo 3DS, and the update to install it on your system is already live. It functions just the same as the Wii and DSi shops, but in addition to special 3DS software, the range of released DSiWare games (Go and play Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. You won’t regret it.), and a small (and rather terrible) pool of GameBoy games are also available to download. The UK prices seem to be slightly higher than the US ones, though.

Ok, that’s finally out of the way. Do we get the console announcement? Fortunately, yes! The name is announces as the Wii U. Which, while fairly silly, is easy enough to put up with. The revival of Wii/Wee jokes won’t be. They lead the showcase with the Wii U’s controller, a 6.2 inch tablet surrounded by the the kind of buttons you’d expect to see on a modern controller. Only odd thing is the placement of the two analogue sticks – right at the top, even above the D-Pad and face buttons. Why on earth are they placed up there? It might work out to be comfortable in practice, but for now, I don’t think my big, meaty hands can accommodate that positioning.

Beyond the unique controller design, the ‘big deal’ about the Wii U is its processing power and graphics capability. It can now directly compete with the HD-capable PS3 and 360, allowing developers who dismissed the Wii as a non-progressive platform to give Nintendo users the same gaming experience everyone else gets. Which is both a good and annoying thing.

On one hand, I’ll be hearing less chatter about ‘Console Wars’. The scope of games released for each platform are now just that little bit more level. Barriers to entry in terms of developing games for multiple platforms will drop, and I definitely see that as a good thing.

On the other hand, I felt that the limitations of the Wii forced developers to do something different with their games to make them marketable. The Wii U isn’t going to make those developers magically vanish, but the line-up for the Wii U shown could largely be described as “Games the other platforms are already getting”, and that made me a little sad.

In Closing…
All in all, the corporates are starting to get the hang of these Conferences. In previous years, many of these presentations would get bogged down in sales figures, and rambles about company history. But the general populace doesn’t want to hear that, and the journalists in the auditorium sure enough aren’t going to report about it. All 3 conferences were almost all about the new games from start to finish, and I definitely appreciate that. Microsoft didn’t have some new hardware to wow the crowd with, bless ‘em, but that Kinect Funlabs will definitely be something to follow. Never underestimate the genius of homebrewers!

The Great Genre Expredition: Dungeon Crawlers

Blizzard Entertainment is a company that sticks to its guns. It's well known for ''World of Warcraft'' and ''Starcraft'' series, partially due to the crushingly huge popularity and exposure those titles have, partially since they're the only games they've released since 2006. But they'll be breaking the trend with a long-awaited (by a very specific demographic) third addition one of their other popular franchises - ''Diablo''.

Diablo started out as a more action-oriented spin on the RTS Genre; focusing on adventures and combat for an adventurer and his companions, rather than a full-scale army. But this direction proved to be so incredibly popular that the style caught on, taking the basic idea of top-down hack & slash, and running away with it. Although since Diablo III is dragging its heels in being released, give these three gems a try in the meantime.

For the Online Gamer: Spiral Knights
The internet is filled with free Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), and many of them are very similar, often taking notes from World of Warcraft. Spiral Knights stands out by cribbing from Diablo instead, but does it in the cutest way possible. From the get go, the art direction and chiptune-nuanced music is immediately charming, and the game play is faithful but much more streamlined than its source material. You control a robotic knight charged with exploring the Clockwork, a forever-shifting maze of dungeons filled with treasure, spike traps, and demon businessmen. The MMO element means you're never short on people to play with, and working as a team definitely improves the experience.

Spiral Knights is a free download for PC. Get it here.

For the Free-Time Gamer: Torchlight 
Torchlight was an Indie release in 2008, and is in almost every respect a big soppy love-letter to Diablo. From the excuse plot of a mining town with a monster infestation, an incredibly similar interface, and a familiar cast of close combat, ranged, and magical characters. What does set the game apart is its cartoonish charm, coupled with the ability to add modifications. In a way the game has been left slightly bare-bones, so you can customise the game to just the way you like it.

That's not to say the game lacks things to do, the compelling and what I can only describe as 'chunky' combat will last you hours, days of your free time. And when you've beaten the game, you can retire your hero, bequeathing your equipment to the next in line. The only real draw back is that Torchlight is a strictly single player experience - an unusual exception for the genre. But don't fear, Torchlight 2 is already in the works, and co-op is a promised feature.

 Torchlight is available on Steam.

For the Comic Book Gamer: X-Men Legends
This one's a little more retro. In an interesting decision from Raven Software and Activision, This retelling of the X-Men universe (of which there are many) is done as a top-down, co-op experience, a surprisingly long string of isolated missions connected by the story of a new X-Men Recruit, Magma. But don't worry, there are plenty of opportunities to play as Wolverine and Cyclops.

Missions let you build a dream team of 4 X-Men, and to make up for the inability to create your own heroes, you can customise everyone's skills. It's a great way to give depth to a game simplified by being a console game. For fans of the series, or those who want to know more beyond what the X-Men movies tell you, there's a whole host of back story, character art and comic book covers tucked away. Although an old game, it's a common find in places that sell second-hand titles.

 X-Men Legends is available on the Gamecube, X-Box, and PS2.

A Game I've Played Lots of Times

This was done as the Day 13 Entry to the VG Resource's 30 Days of Gaming.

I don’t really play games as much as I used to; and in a way, it’s sad. Real life – school and socialising – takes up much more of my waking moments than when I was a teenager, sure. But even when I do have the spare time, I just can’t devote more than an hour or two to my hobby. The only exception to this is when I have someone else playing alongside me.

As such, if there’s going to be a game that I’ll play frequently, it’s going to be a multiplayer affair. I’m, not talking about the (seemingly mandatory) online modes that recent games tend to crowbar in, but a crammed-on-the-sofa, Sunday afternoon, drinks-and-popcorn, local multiplayer game.

 

If video games aren’t at least this much fun for you, you’re doing it wrong.

 
I can’t help but feel my poison of choice is a but ‘out there’, though. The default choice for a local multiplayer game would be a Call of Duty, or FIFA, or if the crowd consists of Nintendo fans, Mario Kart. My choice trumps all of those. When you’re at Casa De GrooveMan, you’re gonna be playing Mario Party.
Wait, wait! Don’t leave! Mario Party is great, honestly! I know that if you look at the concept on paper, it doesn’t sound too hot. A slow, virtual board game with a mountain of throwaway minigames, and a confusing, sometimes even random set of rules. For a someone who’s a stickler for a fair fight, or wants their thrills right from the title screen; Mario Party just refuses to deliver. And stubbornly keeps that attitude through every iteration. And that’s where the magic lies.

For you see, I (and from what I’ve heard, many others) are a little tired of the Metagame. The high level, super serious play of games designed to pit players head to head. Starcraft is an obvious sufferer, but when you see the mentality taken to Pokémon and even Tetris, it gets a bit ridiculous. Mario Party is the complete antithesis to the concept of Metagame. The more you try to game the system for victory, the more the system will snap back right at you, which is refreshing.

I can tell you’re not convinced, so here’s an example. Minigames in Mario Party all draw from basic gaming skills. Timing, reaction speed, precision jumping. This makes them a cinch to get the hang of for those who play games, and an easy lead in for those who don’t. Put someone a little too competitive into this situation, and you’d think that they’d always come out on top – but the occasional game involving blind luck, or the amusingly unfair 1-vs-3 minigames can level the playing field.

Compare that with something like Guitar Hero – another popular party game. The owner of the game is going to be better than the average person by default. Add a little competitiveness into the mix, and they become ‘That Guy’, doomed to ruin fun multiplayer games for everyone. The Smash Bros. series suffers from the same issues, with the vocal group of fans who resent the items and wacky stages.

However, the minigames are just a single facet of the Mario party jewel. The basic rules of the board game that the minigames are tied to do their best to throw an element of chance and suspense. The very first Mario Party had a basic set of rules that were consistent for every stage, but gradually the games added more in-game variation, up until the Wii’s Mario Party 8, where every stage deals with a different set of rules; including an incredible stage where the layout of the board shuffles on a regular basis. Beautiful.

The nature of these stages has two effects – that absolutely anyone has a chance of winning, and that ‘skilled’ players have to work a lot harder to stay ahead. Every game becomes one large gamble, with the odds of victory changing every few minutes. Coins trade hands faster than the stock exchange. Someone lands on the dreaded CHANCE TIME space, and the whole room waits with bated breath for Luigi giving all his stars to Yoshi.

 “NO GODDAMN IT I HAD 5 STARS! SCREW YOU, PEACH!”

 
My personal pick for the series would be Mario Party 2, for the N64. This is partially down to a nostalgia factor (it was the first game I’d gotten to the credits of. I cried.), and because it has a solid mix of minigames and stages to play. A criticism of the later incarnations is they make the games a bit to easy and gimmicky. Mario Party 2 is also available on the Virtual Console for Wii, so you have no excuse to not play it – provided you have friends who are willing to play games with you. I hope they’re not sick of your cheesy tactics in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The Great Genre Expedition: Puzzle Games

This Article has also been hosted at The Yorker and the VG Resource.

Admittedly, puzzle games aren’t quite so ‘out there’ as game genres go, but the market doesn’t really extend outside of Bejeweled – and even the 30-something ‘non-gamer’ market is getting tired of matching three coloured gems. Angry Birds is the new popular mainstay, but I feel it lacks substance. There are other – and better – cerebral thrills to be had.

In this day and age, video game production isn’t solely about the big names any more. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will always hog the limelight, but ‘Indie Devs’ – small developer teams that survive by creating games that the bigger teams might overlook – are making waves, and Digital Distribution services like Steam are the best medium for them to reach an audience.

At first look, Puzzle Dimension has little to it. You roll a ball through tiled mazes, collecting flowers (Why? Who knows), and reaching the goal to progress to the next stage. They do a lot with this simplicity – stages ease you into increasing complexity (ice tiles you slide across, tiles that crumble or ignite, invisible routes…), the background music swells and changes as you complete more of a stage, changing them from blocky and retro to rough and realistic. Later stages will have you fail. A lot. Despite that, muddling through stages is still compelling.

Puzzle Dimension is available on Steam.

The Street Fighter series is world-renowned for its competitive multi player status. Countless versions and revisions to the franchise has tweaked and refined the mechanics of the game to keep everything balanced. Apply that ethos to a puzzle game, and you get Super Puzzle Fighter.

Similar to the Puyo Pop series, the aim is to beat your opponent by building up large masses of blocks (‘Gems’ in this game), and clearing them all at once, giving you huge score bonuses and punishing your opponent. Trash sent by your foe can be converted back into Gems and sent back in sweet revenge. It’s a simple system, but as you learn how to play, setting up lengthy combos toes a thin line of finishing a gigantic assault and a misplaced Gem meaning defeat. The no-nonsense game play has made the game both adrenaline-pumping and very popular in competitive circuits. Plus, the cartoony Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters are just adorable.

The most recent incarnation, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is available on XBLA and PSN.

Puzzle League comes in many guises. Initially a Japanese-only game called Panel de Pon; the SNES western release was re-branded with characters from Yoshi’s Island characters and confusingly named Tetris Attack. But the series didn’t really take off in the west until the Nintendo 64 release of Pokémon Puzzle League. The series has been known as Puzzle League ever since.

The game plays like a more demanding form of Bejeweled. Blocks steadily rise from the bottom of the screen, and by swapping two horizontally adjacent ones (no vertical swaps for you), matching up 3 or more of a kind will make them vanish. Tactics come in where you think several steps ahead, setting up elaborate arrangements of colourful block destruction. This is one of the few games that will get me into the fabled ‘gaming trance’. Where the control and skill required to play just comes naturally and easily. It’s both relaxing and stimulating – It’s both got my brain whirring in the morning, and winding down before bed. Maybe having ‘Tetris’ in the initial title wasn’t a bad idea.

Puzzle League is available on most Nintendo consoles. I recommend Planet Puzzle League for the DS. Pokémon Puzzle League is available on Wii Virtual Console.

Android's Dream - ASUS Eee Pads

This article has also been posted at The Yorker and the VG Resource.

With technology, new hardware is made to compete with old rivals. For example, it’s clear the similarity of the Playstation Move to the Wii Remote is no accident or coincidence. Similarly mobile phones were being influenced by the Blackberry and (later on) the iPhone. And now with the iPad, an era of Tablet Computers has come to public attention. Apple has the advantage of a high-profile and brand name, so other companies need to think of other methods to compete.


ASUS, the fairly prolific laptop and netbook producer, has jumped whole-heartedly into the tablet computer market with two different Eee Pad models, the Eee Slate and the Eee Pad Transformer.

The Eee Slate is the simpler of the two. A 12-inch screen and running Windows 7 Portable, it’s very much a downsized laptop – complete with USB Port and SD card reader. However, the Win7 Portable operating system (OS) isn’t a stunning one. The main reason why the iOS system (that powers both the iPhone and the iPad) is so popular is because of its ease of use, a design specifically to be used out and about. This OS is the ordinary Windows 7 with added touch-screen functionality. It feels slower and clunkier than just using a mouse, and the keyboard program is especially sluggish.

Fortunately, the Eee Pad Transformer deftly avoids these problems. Smaller and more lightweight – with only a 10-inch screen – the most notable feature is that it comes bundled with a detachable keyboard. It’s no larger than the tablet itself, but it’s where all the magic happens. It functions as a charging dock with all the ports and connectors you’d expect from a proper laptop. For someone like me who resents the cramped and unresponsive keyboard approximations that touch screen systems normally offer, this is a godsend.

The OS is the Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the latest of a system ordinarily used for mobile phones. Its design is a cleaner layout, and closer to the look of desktop Macs and PCs. This is bolstered with pre-installed software from ASUS. Software installed by a hardware company is often terrible – existing to slow down your computer and pelt you with advertising (Toshiba does this with their laptop range, and it’s a crime against humanity) but this appears to be a rare exception.

The most interesting app is Waveshare, an online storage program. Offering unlimited storage space for your music, movies and files for no cost in the first year, it’s a great offset for the Transformer’s limited memory (16 or 32GB); but there’s an (at time of writing) unknown monthly charge after that year. Freeloaders like me can use the free Dropbox app for Android as an alternative.

The other aspect of Waveshare is the ability to connect with any computer, monitor or projector that uses DLNA, allowing you to stream your media from your Transformer to the big screen, or through your sound system. Even cooler, you can set up your home computer to have Remote Access with it, so if you leave that presentation back at home, all is not lost. It’s a very decadent (and a little pretentious) approach to modern computing.

In an attempt to one-up the iPad’s weak notepad app, the Transformer comes with its own word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. It’s incredibly bare bones, so while it’s a very good way to take notes or edit essays on the fly, you won’t want to write your dissertation on this thing. If you use Open Office to do your work, you’ll be sad to find these programs can’t read .odt files. Ouch.

The Eee Pad Transformer performs well as both an Android device and netbook. Considering its £429 price tag, it’s great value for the practical design and useful software, but it’s way beyond the average student budget – especially if you’re already rocking an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

By the time you read this, the ASUS Eee Tablet Transformer should be on sale (£429, £379 without the tablet). The Asus Eee Slate is already on sale online only (£999!).

The Great Genre Expedition: Beat 'Em Ups

This feature has also been posted at The Yorker and the VG Resource.

Like any other media, the range of genres in video games is vast, and they don't get equal representation. Everyone is aware of the Pop/Rock section in record shops, the Crime section in book stores, and if games stores sorted their stock by genre, you'd find FPS and Brain Training games dominating the shelves. But other genres can't be ignored - there may be something that you never knew you liked.

Unless you grew up near an arcade in the 90s, the Beat 'em Up is one of those under-represented genres. The name is apt; you roam across a level, beating seven bells out of any thugs, monsters or robots that stand in your way, with a mean-looking and tricky boss at the end of each stage. Showing up mostly in arcades, many games offered addictive, but incredibly difficult game play, enticing you to put another coin in to keep going.

Between the comic books and the film, Scott Pilgrim has become a (self-professed) paragon of the 21st Century Nerd. So it makes sense that when a video game was made, it would be based on such a retro genre, complete with chunky, brightly-coloured pixel art, and music done by Chiptune/Rock band Anamanaguchi.


Playing as the series' four main characters, they fight through locations of the comic, to take on love interest Ramona's 7 Evil Exes. There's a lot of divergence from the original story, but that results in a level where you beat up overweight ninjas in a restaurant - so I'm fine with that. The game is easier than old-style beat 'em ups, but more involved. Your characters level up as they cave in the faces of hipsters and street thugs, gaining new moves and growing stronger as you progress. This makes later stages much easier; but much more accessible.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is downloadable from Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

This is one of the more iconic games in Beat 'em Up's history. Released in 1993 for the Sega Mega Drive, it outshines its predecessor by introducing characters with more unique strengths and weaknesses, which has become a staple of the genre (and even influencing other genres) ever since.


By today's standards, the game is pretty difficult. There are a limited number of lives and continues, and once you lose them all, it's back to the start of the game for you. The bosses you face are challenging on first appearance - and then quickly become regular foes in later stages. Playing with a friend makes things easier and more entertaining, but be aware that you can attack your partner. Accidentally fitting them with a flying kick, or taking their health item when they're near death is how rivalries are born.

Streets of Rage 2 can be played on as part of Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection (PS3/360) or downloaded from the Wii's Virtual Console.

 There are a lot of bizarre arcade entries I could put here (The Simpsons beat 'em up comes to mind), but something about this game that wowed me, beyond the ridiculous name. Based on a comic book, the game reflects this by having over-the-top characters and action sequences. Losing a life is accompanied with an airstrike hitting everything around you - whether you're above ground or not. Dinosaurs roving the city fly into a rage, and are placated by punching them in the face. It's a great experience.


However, the game pulls no punches. Any of the four playable characters are capable fighters, so the game balances things out by giving them very little health. A game for those who enjoy taking on a challenge.

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is an Arcade game, but can be emulated on your PC! Read up about it here.

Death Count - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

 

The genres for video games are vast. Most are aware of First Person Shooters. Real Time Strategy is less common but hardly unheard of. But then there's the Visual Novel; a genre only really paid attention to by a much more marginalised audience. They are what the name suggests - games that are interactive books - focusing on the story depth and characters rather than action sequences.

 

Games of this type vary in quality; the Ace Attorney series is the best example released in the West, but Japan has its own special sub-genre of risqué Visual Novels that creep me out.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (herein referred to as 999 for my sanity) is very much its own beast. An easy way to describe it would be "The cast of Ace Attorney in a Saw film", but that doesn't quite do it justice. You play through the eyes of Junpei - a teenager who has woken up in an abandoned bedroom on a ship. The only thing in his possession is an irremovable metal bracelet with a '5' on it. Then inexplicably, the room starts to flood with water, and Junpei must find a way to unlock the door, or die trying. He finds that he and eight others are playing the 'Nonary Game', where success means escape, failure means drowning, and breaking the rules means a bomb in your stomach going off.

The game's puzzles all function similarly, each room you enter contains a set of puzzles resulting in an escape route unlocking. None of the tasks are straightforward, but they're all based in sensible leaps of logic, solved with patient thinking. So while there is a sense of atmosphere and tension in solving the puzzles (though there's no time limit), it's not frustrating - a lesson that the Professor Layton series could learn from.

With the puzzle sections so short, the bulk of 999 is instead taken up with narrative; and damn is there a lot of it. There can be hours worth of dialogue in between each interactive element, sometimes even within the room escape sections. This would be unbearable under most circumstances, but the story is strangely compelling. Of course, it doesn't exactly stand up to a quality ink-and-paper novel, but the subject matter and quality of the translation from Japanese is impressive. While there is no on-screen gore, descriptions of violence and of any 'rule breakers' you come across are done creepily well.

The character depth is what made the game for me. While the room puzzles are enjoyable, they're brief. This game survives entirely on the strength of its narrative; so thank goodness it's such a good one. In the early stages of the story, the characters feel like numbered narrative devices, but as you progress, all the characters become fleshed-out and empathetic; you'll definitely find a favourite. This is coupled with a quality soundtrack done by Shinji Hosoe, previously known for the high-octane techno tracks he creates; this is first foray into ambient and atmospheric tunes, and it works incredibly well.

999 has multiple endings, depending on which puzzle rooms you decide to tackle. Each ending explains more about the characters and nature of the Nonary Game, so repeat plays are necessary to understand everything. On subsequent runs, you're able to fast-forward through text that you've already seen; which makes the process much quicker - sitting through some of the longer cut scenes again would be maddening.

999 rewards the open-minded gamer. A game consisting of 'pulp novel' dialogue will be a huge turn-off for some, but the execution is so well done, I implore the adventurous to check it out. Be prepared to use an importing website, though - while the American release has been available for a few months, there is no sign of an EU release as of yet.

This review has also been hosted on The Yorker and can be found here.

Lupe Fiasco - Lasers

I'm a firm believer in giving new albums a chance. Maybe it's because there are enough annoyingly vocal people on the Internet yelling "This new album is different to the others so it SUCKS." Or maybe it's because I get funny looks from my friends when I say I like Muse's The Resistance as much as their earlier stuff. But I am compelled to keep an open mind when new tunes are released by the artists I like.

And I won't front in that regard; I love Lupe Fiasco. When I heard that his new album (and potentially final one, if his desire to only release his mixtape and 3 albums holds true) was in production, I decided to not spoil myself until it was released. I eventually caved, and listened to his single, 'The Show Goes On' and...
It was different, so I kind of hated it. And then felt bad for my sentiment. But no matter how I sliced it, the more 'top 40 rap song' beat wasn't what I looked for in Lupe, and it disappointed me. But on the other hand, it increased my hope that the album would be really varied in style.

As it turned out, that turned out to be exactly the truth. Lasers has been split neatly in two - almost to the degree where I'm starting wonder if it's intentional. The first half boasts almost all the musical tropes I can't stand: a male, boorish backing of "Oh oh ohs" on ‘Letting Go’, the flat, half-singing on ‘Till I Get There’ (though the lyrics for the verses are incredibly clever), and upon listening to a few forgettable others and getting to ‘Beautiful Lasers’, you're pelted with a full-on auto-tune chorus.

But then, ‘Coming Up’ happened. Leading in with a neat and simple piano riff, the beat dropped with a big helping of synth strings, and suddenly everything flashed back to early 2000s R&B. The sudden change was incredibly relieving, but my pessimistic side expected it to be a fluke. This was followed up with ‘State Run Radio’, which solidly proved me wrong. The cute radio-tuning sound effects and cheesy rock guitar melody made me think of a more mature-sounding Gym Class Heroes (that's not a bad thing, I promise).

‘BREAK THE CHAIN’ (capitalisation theirs) goes on a '90s club bent with a drum loop that almost made me fall out of my chair. Sway features as a guest rapper, and part of me was happy to know that the British lyricist hadn't entirely faded into obscurity.

‘Never Forget You’ and ‘Shining Down’ are somewhat weaker, not quite demonstrating the musical or lyrical style of the tracks preceding them; but ‘All Black Everything’ and ‘I'm Beamin’’ shine through as the best tracks on the album, delivering some incredible lines. They're great concepts; and exactly what I love about Lupe.

Lasers may be bifurcated in its musical quality, but Lupe Fiasco's rapping skills and meaningful lyrics definitely haven't dulled. And in time, I can grow to accept, maybe even enjoy the more mainstream first half. Though I'll never grow to like auto-tune. Jay-Z was pretty off in his predictions.

This article has also been hosted on The Yorker. You can find it here.

The Happiest Game on Earth - Kirby's Epic Yarn

Yes, I know the US got this game months before we did, but this is new and fresh to me at least!
The Kirby series has something of a reputation. The design has always been cute and endearing; and the game play undemanding, but fluid and enjoyable.

Over time, the games have varied in quality and difficulty, but we just can't hate the little guy, nor the games he appears in. Kirby's Epic Yarn doesn't buck that trend, but instead refines what makes Kirby games so charming and enjoyable, with a unique difference.

Everything is made from yarn. Or felt. Or cotton wool. Justified through a somewhat contrived plot line of Kirby being turned into yarn and whisked away to Patch Land by the wicked Yin Yarn (groan), the developers have gone wild with the art direction, and seamlessly blended it with how the game plays. The levels themselves scrunch up, unzip and unravel as Kirby progresses through each stage, accompanied by the angry looking Prince Fluff as a second player. Each stage is scored by the number of beads you collect, awarding bonuses for not taking damage and collecting items, with a bonus roulette of beads at the end. The score goes towards a ranking at the end of the stage.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is essentially one giant bedtime story - and that goes beyond the alternate interpretation of the game title. The pastel colour scheme, the light-hearted and whimsical concept and a soft spoken narrator for the cutscenes gives the entire package a feel like you're acting out the next Gruffalo or Very Hungry Caterpillar.


This stylistic choice seeps into the game play too. It's impossible to fail a stage in Epic Yarn. While all the staple platforming hazards are present and correct - enemies (adorably animated), crushing ceilings (denim constructed), rising lava (orange silk) - if Kirby collides with them, he'll reel back as his hard earned collectables go scattering. This means that Kirby's story will always end as intended; stages will be completed and bosses beaten. The effect of this is twofold - players who aren't much used to platformers will eventually finish their quest without much frustration, and more experienced gamers can pursue 'perfect runs' of each stage, racking up the highest scores.

As I played, I found that the game provided far more challenge than I had expected. Simply beating the game was a fun, but undemanding experience, so I felt compelled to try something that I almost never do with my games - a 100% completion. The check list of items heading to full completion was a lengthy one - unlocking all the stages, getting a Gold rank on every stage, collecting all the hidden items, beating the bonus challenge levels, filling in the encyclopedias of characters, enemies, and music tracks...

Playing the game in co-op feels like a much more rewarding experience than playing alone. Picking up your ally and throwing them up to new areas or into enemies can make some areas a lot more fluid; though you could argue it makes an already easy experience even easier. Then again, as both players can be damaged, some stages will rob you of all you hard-earned beads as Kirby and Prince Fluff get crushed, burned or battered. If there's a gap in skill between the two players, it can get a bit heated, as one player lags behind, or drops gems often. Go in with a relaxed attitude, or let the soothing piano soundtrack do it for you.

Kirby's Epic Yarn is a very different way of handing a 2D Platformer, but by no means a bad one. The experience may be too cheerful or too unchallenging for some; but hating this game is equivocal to hating fun. Fact.

This article has also been hosted at The Yorker, and can be found here.

Let's Build a Computer!

Note: This article has been hosted at The Yorker in two parts. This version is edited to be a full piece, and be less specific to the Societies and shops in York. This version has also been mirrored on the VG Resource's blog. Check it out!

Computers are complicated. For the most part, there's a general assumption that building your own computer, especially one designed for gaming, is a task that can only be performed by the Computer Science students with a huge budget (or those who don't mind spending their student loan). In a way, that's true – a lot of self-professed 'PC Gamers' spend a lot of money on their rig - but I knew that building my own machine would save me a lot of money compared to going to the nearest PC World or Currys and being given an overpriced machine with added bells and whistles that I neither wanted nor needed.

So with my Christmas, birthday, and part-time job money saved up, I took to the Internet to shop for parts. This was by far the most complicated part of the process. While I had an idea of what parts I needed (a motherboard would be obvious, a power supply unit incredibly necessary), what specifications and what brand gave a ridiculous number of options. Looking at the UK computer sales sites Scan.co.uk and Aria.co.uk, they had an uncanny knack of not letting me compare different items for cost or performance. Against all personal standards, I would have killed for a computer nerd equivalent of Go Compare.

In the end, I found a website dedicated to building computers that gave clear indicators of what items I would need to put together a cost effective machine. It didn't take long to search for those, and result in the following:

Motherboard: "Gigabyte MicroATX" £64.66

Processor: "AMD Athlon II Quad Core 640" £75.90

RAM: "4GB Hypertec Hyperam" £27.59

Hard Drive: "500GB Western Digital" £29.70

Power Supply: "Corsair VX 450w" £55.74

Case: "Asus MicroATX Tower" £22.84

(In addition to this, necessary accessories like a monitor, a wireless adaptor, and a keyboard and mouse.)

Factoring in delivery costs, the total of it all came to £411.

Waiting eagerly over the weekend, the parts finally arrived in two separate deliveries. The disadvantage to shopping from multiple sites was my goods not all arriving at once. A bit skittish about going into building my computer entirely blind, I nagged my housemate doing a Computer Science degree to help me out.

As it turned out, there wasn't much that I couldn't do solo. While all the parts were from different companies, the instructions that came with them all were simple to understand, and didn't conflict with each other; everything fitting into place with screws, wires plugged in with satisfying clicks. Following each instruction correctly with no problems gives a slight feeling of pride and achievement; as if I was building an IKEA flat-pack bookshelf, but one I could play video games on.

About an hour later, I had finished. Hooking up the monitor and keyboard, it all turned on just fine. And then I realised.

I didn't buy a DVD drive! How on earth was I supposed to install my copy of Windows without one? My progress was put on hold as I made another trip to Scan:

DVD Drive: "Samsung DVD Writer" £12.53

The DVD drive arrived the next Tuesday, and I excitedly wired it up to my machine. Like before, plugging in all the cables was a snap, but another problem arose; it was just a few millimetres too big to fit into the computer case. This was less of an issue; once Windows was installed and my computer was up and running, I disconnected the DVD drive, and everything still ran smoothly.

The final step was to buy a graphics card. Without one, playing any recent games on my computer would be a huge struggle for the motherboard's weedy integrated graphics - definitely not what I'd want. The high-end Graphics Cards are incredibly expensive, the biggest and best going for almost £300 a pop and are as large as a DS Lite. That was definitely not the kind of money I was looking to spend; so I turned to second-hand sales. It didn't take me long to find an American selling his old PC parts:

Graphics Card: "BFG Tech GeForce 7950GT" £42

The card arrived faster than expected, but there was one final issue. Computer monitors can use multiple types of connection plugs, the two common ones being the blue VGA, and the white DVI. The graphics card had a DVI socket, but my monitor had a VGA cable. Fortunately, this problem was both simple and inexpensive to fix – there are adaptors that can convert a plug from VGA to DVI. Currys was threatening to charge me £21 for this relatively simple lump of metal and plastic, but checking out an independent computer hardware store, I was able to get an adaptor for just £4.

Fitting in the graphics card and using the new monitor connection was the final step, and a huge relief. The computer searched for and installed the correct drivers with minimal fuss, and a little tinkering and testing to make sure everything was working the way it should, my £460-odd project was complete. The specifications were undemanding – not a patch on the really high-end gaming machines, but the ability to run Borderlands without the slowdown and choppy frame rate my laptop offered made me sigh with satisfaction. Mission complete.

Want to build your own PC? Here are a few hints:

• Don't be put off by the technobabble. While all of the numbers and codes will be useful to some people, try and focus on the basics. If it's RAM or a Hard Drive, what's the memory size? Are the case and motherboard size compatible? Is your processor designed for your motherboard? All this information should be easy to find.
• Look everywhere! I purchased most of my parts from big retailers, but looking on eBay, trading websites, or even asking your friends for their old PC they keep in the attic might yield useful bits and pieces.
• Be Prepared to Build! While the actual building phase can be straightforward if you're good at following instructions; having a second pair of hands will make referring to instructions and getting the pieces ready a lot faster. Don't be a loner! It's also a good idea to have your own screwdrivers and cable ties to hand, the parts don't always come with them.
• Measure, measure, measure! While most computer parts are built to a standard size, and should fit perfectly into your case, there's still a chance something might be build to an odd size. Double check the measurements just in case something might not fit snugly. You can make alterations by yourself if need be, but not recommended. If something snaps in half, don't say I didn't warn you.