Back in November I was privileged enough to get to attend AnimFX ’11 here in Wellington, NZ. While there I happened to listen to a presentation by Tracey Sellar, a Senior User Research Lead for Microsoft Games Studio, who was discussing Usability in the games industry. While her presentation kept me interested there was one particular slide that has eaten away at me for months now. The slide showed your typical bell curve and it was describing what type of people buy any one game. The middle section of the bell curve was made up of casual gamers with the smaller ends devoted to inexperienced gamers and hardcore gamers respectively.

What this slide was trying to portray was that even if you make a hardcore game catered to specific fans, the majority of your consumers will be below that of your hardcore gamer, and this is where we start seeing problems arise. Obviously, if a game is too hard or too complicated for the majority of your userbase you’re not too likely to sell a sequel or similar product to them, and thus your userbase for any future iterations will be lower.

The only logical step from there is to listen to the consumers that have bought your product and change things to make it more to their liking. The hardcore fans who loved the complexity and challenge of your product already have the “buy-in” to your next product. They’ll follow any news regarding it and they’ll pick it up on day 1. They’ll then find out it’s been watered down or tailored to a softer audience than they are, complain, finish the game defiantly and hope for a better sequel. In the end, what does their opinion REALLY matter when the majority of the people buying your game now have an experience more tailored to them?

We’ve seen this happen with numerous products over the past few years with Dragon Age 2 being the most notable (and most recent) example of this. Hard and fast action games are becoming the pop music of the gaming world with more games trying to emulate the major success of popular shooters like Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield. Dead Space 2 dropped a chunk of its tension and horror in favour of running and gunning, as did Resident Evil 5 before it. It’s not a new thing and genres that were part of everyday gaming life 5 – 10 years ago are becoming niche genres.

But I’m here to say that it doesn’t need to be like this. Instead of pandering to one section of the market and annoying the gamers that helped make gaming the industry it is today there has to be a way of bringing the inexperienced and casual gamers the triple-A titles hardcore gamers want to play without alienating them. And with that I introduce a difficulty setting that actually works.

Instead of Easy, Medium, Hard and Insane (all of which are basically the same game with the same puzzles and same AI) I’m suggesting developers spend more time putting in a Novice, Intermediate and Hardcore setting. We’re currently in a gaming world where you get tutorials for everything, whether or not you’ve played the previous 5 instalments of the franchise.

Example 1 (Novice)

Player 1 loves movies but has never played a game before. He’s heard that the latest Uncharted title would be right up his alley and he sets out to hire it and a console to play it on. Upon loading the game he selects the novice setting and the game starts. After the opening cinematic – he loved it by the way – the game pauses and explains that the left analog stick will move Drake about while the right analog stick will move the camera. While still paused Player 1 is asked to make the camera look at the ceiling. Player 1 moves the stick forward and the game recognises him as a non-invert gamer. The game unpauses and Player 1 is able to move Drake around the room.

The novice setting would be a very pause/unpause experience to begin with, and can be switched to Intermediate at any stage once Player 1 feels comfortable. He may never feel comfortable and the game will assist him over every jump, firefight or puzzle he comes across. Hopefully this will encourage Player 1 to sit through the entire experience and feel like the interactive movie he had heard about, he might even get adventurous and switch to intermediate should he want to watch/play again.

Example 2 (Intermediate)

Player 2 has a smart phone and loves a bit of Angry Birds. She’s also partial to a bit of Game Dev Story and has heard there are other simulator type games out there. A new Harvest Moon game is just around the corner and decides to pick it up to play on her boyfriend’s console. Upon selecting the Intermediate setting the game starts how any current (non example) game would start. The tutorials are what she expected and goes into showing her the ins and outs of how to play the game without being too intrusive or condescending. This is how casual gamers currently play games, and it works. Player 2 is happy, and plays through the game intent on playing another in the future.

Example 3 (Hardcore)

Player 3 follows the game industry, has played every Call of Duty released and doesn’t need to hear how to crouch or aim a gun. He can do it blindfolded and has a K/D ratio that impresses the gaming community he’s a part of. Picks the latest shooter up at a midnight launch, heads home and selects the Hardcore setting. After a second or two of familiarising himself with this companies way of controlling he’s good to go. He beats the game in a night and complains that it wasn’t long enough, or that someone was cheating online or something. Either way, he’s had no handholding and was able to get into the action straight away.

The system isn’t really about removing a difficulty slider but allowing gamers from all walks of life to enjoy a single product without alienating anyone. While it may not be plausible in every situation, whether the genre doesn’t suit it or the developers don’t have the budget for it, I feel that it would work wonders to help gaming become even more mainstream without watering down the experience.

Let me know what you think, and any ideas you have for how the gaming industry can continue to grow without alienating the hardcore group.

It’s quite amazing how far consoles have come this generation when it comes to digital distribution. Many gamers have gone from rising up against the idea of losing physical copies of games to having several titles installed on their consoles HDDs whilst complaining that they still need their discs to run them. We’ve gone from having the launch 360 releasing with a meager 20gig HDD to 250gig being the current standard for what is for all intents and purposes the same console. Videogame distribution is changing and it’s clear to everyone that the system to deal with such new techniques is just not available yet.

I have been thinking about the way Microsoft (and Sony) deal with their digital distribution for quite some time now but it wasn’t until I read Ron Carmel’s Gamasutra article that I realised that it’s possible that the world doesn’t quite have the answer it needs to fully utilise this new way of selling quality gaming. I think Ron hits the nail on the head with everything he states in his article, in particular when Ron suggests that one of the things Microsoft needs to do to help XBLA survive is to “Solve the content discovery problem”. Let’s take a look at why this is a problem to begin with.

The Marketplace, for non-360 owners or those who simply switch their 360s to load directly to disc without any interest in the dashboard, is a place where Microsoft stores literally hundreds of games, demos and DLC for download. Games themselves range from 200 – 1600MS points (with 200 points equating to $NZ3.30) and trials for all XBox Live Arcade titles being completely and utterly free. So how is it that despite having hundreds of titles, each at a reasonable price point, the Marketplace continues to have limited success? Sure there are now four titles that have managed to snare a million sales, but with Uno topping the XBLA charts with a little over 2 million sales and the highest ranking retail title, Call of Duty: Black Ops, sitting at over 12 million sales it feels like something is seriously wrong with the system. It just doesn’t make sense to see so few XBLA titles achieve the acclaim they so rightfully deserve.

To fully understand what’s wrong with the way Microsoft deals with titles on the Marketplace you just need to take one look at the very first tab that appears when you switch on your 360 console. Spotlight is used to highlight any important bits and pieces in the gaming world, and more often than not the first thing you’ll see is a quick link to news regarding the latest retail release. As of writing this the only images viewable (without touching the controller) upon loading up my console are based around the releases of FIFA12, Gears of War 3 and Forza 4 and while it makes sense to showcase some of the 360′s biggest recent/upcoming releases, it seems strange that they decide to show items that people can’t buy RIGHT NOW, but we’ll come back to this point a little later.

Should you actually be interested in finding out what XBLA games have hit recently, it’s just a matter of navigating to the Games Marketplace tab. Sure enough, you’ll not only find a reverse chronological list of Arcade releases, but many other ways for you to find the game you’re looking for, which is great if you know which game it is you’re looking for; that’s if you can remember the name of that game you thought looked interesting six months ago which you’ve only just decided to buy now. Found inside the Game Marketplace tab is also a similarly filtered selection of game demos for retail titles, fully downloadable retail titles and add-ons for games you own. Microsoft have an incredibly full library in their hands, and anyone with a spare few dollars (and minutes) will surely stumble across a game, an expansion or some extra tracks for Guitar Hero/Rock Band that suits them down to the ground. The layout is basic, and as long as you know what it is you’re after, you’ll have it downloaded and running in no time. But what about the games you don’t know you want? Or the DLC for the game you love that no-one has told you about? Or what about the game you were kinda interested in which has dropped to a price you now think is worthwhile?

This is where the Spotlight tab should be doing its work, and where I start discussing ways in which the Marketplace stops being a standalone feature of the 360′s dashboard and starts becoming a fully integrated part of your gaming console. After all, with every game you play, achievement you earn, friend you add and item you download, your 360 knows a lot about your gaming habits, who you play with, what they play and what games/products you should be interested in.

The very first thing Microsoft should be showing you when you switch on your 360 should be the most important thing to you as a consumer. Yes, I get it, FIFA12 releases this week but considering I don’t have any achievements for any other FIFA title created in the past 5+ years maybe I’m not the right demographic for this advertisement, I’m just not likely to be the one that picks this up. Even if I happened to be a giant fan of FIFA, there’s absolutely nothing I can do from my 360, controller in hand, that turns that advert into an immediate sale. If Microsoft wants my money, and I certainly want to give it to them considering I have my 360 turned on and ready to game, maybe you should be showing me something that is relevant to ME.

First off, make the second item on the Spotlight (I’m saving the first item for later) a link to this week’s XBLA releases. YOU know you have a weekly schedule but we (the consumer) are a little more ignorant. The die-hard gamers who follow the industry know that Thursday is release day, but your average gamer barely even knows that new games come out every week let alone the day they release on. So put that in our faces! Let us know that there are some new tantalising titles that have released and give me quick and easy access to check them out. Maybe I have enough MS points to spend on something right now, or maybe I’ll load some more points onto my account to grab the release I had been eagerly anticipating or maybe I’ll see something that intrigues me but I’m unsure about. Maybe I’ll download the trial or maybe I’ll add it to my wishlist. Which brings me to what should be the VERY FIRST THING my 360 shows me when I boot up my console: The Wishlist.

Now, the Wishlist isn’t something Microsoft have incorporated into their Dashboard/Marketplace yet – and I say “yet” knowing that there’s a new Dashboard update coming in November and that maybe there’s just a tiny possibility that they’ve added this ingenious idea to it. Needless to say, this Wishlist button would start off by showing me whatever item on my wishlist is currently a hot item or if an item is on sale. Selecting the Wishlist would take you to a magical place, a place where every XBLA game you’ve marked as being interesting is shown in an order of your choosing. Maybe you’ve decided to show them in lowest to highest pricing or maybe you’ve asked to have games that are currently on sale at the top of your list; either way you’re shown a list of downloadable games/items that are incredibly relevant to you and your gaming. This Wishlist knows which games you’ve completed and therefore knows which DLC expansions you’re likely to be interested in and instead of just listing them all in some cumbersome list, will group them via game title. The Wishlist knows you often play online and that a high percentage of your friends have been playing a certain online XBLA title and brings this to your attention before you’re out of the competitive loop forever.

Of course, this could be deemed as a rather intrusive way for Microsoft to advertise specifically to you, and should therefore be an optional entity in the 360 Dashboard. In the end Microsoft are going to advertise something to you so it might as well be relevant to the games you already play, or something you’ve indicated being interested in. Who doesn’t want to be notified when a game you’re interested in is going for a lower price?

A system like that outlined above surely is well achievable in the hands of someone like Microsoft, and while new offers and releases can be found through navigating the Dashboard it isn’t a simple process. Next up on the Spotlight tab should be the next most important piece of data collection that your 360 can offer you: recommendations. As I’ve mentioned before, your 360 knows what games you like, it knows if you’ve been following a series and it knows what that group of friends you’ve been playing with recently are all playing now. These factors along with the fact that you can rate the games you’ve played (and for some reason the ones you haven’t) should be the starting point for the best filtering system on any console. With a simple press of a button you should have an instant list of recommendations tailored to your gaming tastes and styles, and it should let you know, through the image shown on the Spotlight tab, if any of these games are on one of the many specials the XBLA seem to have. If my iPhone can do this then surely my console should be able to as well.

While I haven’t fully discussed finding games that aren’t new releases, recommendations or titles on your wishlist it doesn’t mean I won’t continue pondering ways for this to be fixed as well. Is it possible that developers can ask to re-release their titles in a bid to garner more sales from either veteran 360 owners or new gamers that didn’t have a console when the title first released? Maybe give random spots on other sections of the Spotlight tab in favour of simply advertising a retail game that a gamer can’t purchase until they walk away from their console? I understand that in the end there needs to be a section of the Dashboard that is similar to what Microsoft already have in place otherwise it’d just be impossible to find an older game that no-one’s talking about any more, but any evolution of the Marketplace can only be good from here on in.

A lot of these things I’ve mentioned above I do personally believe will arrive on our consoles eventually, albeit probably next-gen, so now is a good a time as any to discuss one other feature I would love to see show up sometime between now and when I boot up my XBox 360-2: a Friend News Feed.

I’m sure a lot of you are rolling your eyes as you picture a Facebook clone filled with gaming spam from your list of online friends, but to fully understand where I’m trying to go here you really need to push Facebook from your mind. A few games this generation have shown glimpses of what could be the evolution of socialising online with XBox Live. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit allowed gamers to have a list of their friends times show up while they were racing and challenges could be thrown on a “wall” inside the game itself. You could select any challenge from this menu and with a button press you’d be doing your best to beat your friends time. Fight Night Champion allowed gamers to record and edit replays and then upload them to an EA server so you could send it to your mates over the net and let them see your devastating finishing move. But there was one thing that stopped both of these from being perfect, one thing that made sharing more of a chore than it needed to be: you couldn’t do it from one unified place.

Imagine a Friends tab where instead of just seeing a picture of an avatar and some box art, that screen actually meant something. Not only would it show you who was currently online and what they were playing but it’d also show a timeline of sorts. Something that shows challenges from friends, achievements they’ve earnt and possibly incorporate a system that allows a gamer to take and post snapshots from their gaming session. There needs to be a way that I can show off to my mates that I managed to get a hard to earn achievement with a pic just to rub it in.

As I said above, these changes or suggestions aren’t something I’m expecting to see this generation, but I feel that if implemented correctly we could start to see XBLA sales rising (although Microsoft probably need to sort out a few of the other things Ron Carmel mentioned) and a great new way to interact with the gamers we already interact with.

Please leave comments, thoughts or questions below or let me know what you feel is needed to help XBLA games to be seen.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

El Shaddai is one of those games that despite having little information released throughout its development cycle had screenshots that made people eager to know more. The style being portrayed in every single image of the game was unique in every way possible and with subject matter being based on The Book of Enoch (an ancient Jewish religious work), people were right to be intrigued. So it’s that much worse for a game with so much promise to be so far from perfection.

The game revolves around Enoch (grandfather of Noah) being asked to return, and purify, seven fallen angels from Earth while being guided by an Archangel named Lucifel, who, by the way, is like a teenager when it comes to keeping in touch with his BFF: God.  Sadly, this section of the story is the only part that seems to make any sense. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of flow when it comes to the storytelling found in El Shaddai. Where did that little girl come from? Why is she riding what seems to be a VERY Studio Ghibli inspired Nephilim? How come Armaros claims to be Enoch’s friend, and then later in the game, after denying it, why does Enoch change his mind?

There’s a chance that many aspects of the story went over my head. I don’t know The Book of Enoch and there were times where the storytelling got lost in the gameplay, so while the eight or so hours it took to get through was confusing, at least the combat was deep, satisfying and bug free, right?

Sorry, that was a loaded question. The only thing more confusing than the “what the hell? I’m racing motorbikes in the future?” story is the gameplay itself. Nothing you’re asked to do ever really gets explained, and while you’re left to your own devices to figure out what those orange orbs you’ve been collecting are for (answer: I still don’t know) you’re told via disembodied voices, how to progress through some of the most basic action/adventure progression devices.  One of the biggest mysteries to me is the combat. Some publications are touting it as smooth/fluid/satisfying and I can easily say that despite going through the minimal tutorial I still don’t understand the decisions made.

The combat system involves stealing weapons off your enemies and using them against them, or using them against different enemies… or was it stealing a weapon from the first enemy to use it on the second enemy only to steal THEIR weapon to use on the first enemy? Anyway, no matter which weapon you have it always seems to feel like you’re either holding the wrong weapon or you’ve got the one decent weapon that causes your attacks to be slowed right down. Thankfully with only one attack button, a jump button and a block/modifier button you won’t have to worry about getting lost in giant combo button presses. I will praise the combat system for one thing though, the use of a varied tempo of button mashing to trigger defense breakers. They were satisfying when they hit, but in the end the combat system just felt broken.

Blocking does very little for two of the three weapons you can pick up, counterattacks need to be charged BEFORE the enemy attacks and often you won’t have access to the weapon you need until you either do enough damage with the ineffective weapon currently in Enoch’s hands, or you get beaten down and button mash your way to your next life. Speaking of which, there’s something incredibly patronising about telling you that you need to spam every button on the controller within the allotted time to get a quick second/third/fourth chance right after spamming the hell out of every button and not getting anywhere.

So while the story and combat really did nothing to keep me entertained at least the graphical style kept my attention the entire way through. The entire El Shaddai experience feels like nothing you’ve ever played before, unless you regularly play videogames on some kind of acid trip or mushroom induced state. The graphics are beautiful in almost every way, and the style changes enough to keep your eyes eager for more. There was only one moment where the graphics managed to get in the way of the gameplay and that was when a giant colourful overlay was sat stationary over the camera lens. It caused me to misjudge numerous jumps and even managed to make that small section look ugly in comparison to the rest of the game. All in all, the art in El Shaddai is amazing.

Sadly, the game tries to be artsy in every other area as well. There was a section in the game where you, as Enoch, had to run up a dark corridor with a glowing light at the end… but you had to do it 5 or 6 times with absolutely nothing but some bizarre voiceovers trying to explain sections of the story in non-sensical English. Wherever the developers tried to implement something new, all they managed to do was bore me, and sadly this wasn’t the only section that managed to do that. Almost every single level is made up of a linear path with wider circles of platform dotted along them. These rounded areas are home to four or five enemies that spawn out of nowhere. Fight them and continue along the linear path to the next spawn circle. The game is basically that, rinse and repeat, for eight hours with boss fights and some awesome looking 2D platforming stages in between.

There’s something to be said about trying something new in the gaming world. People complain when we see sequel after sequel, and then a great new IP comes along and no-one buys it. There’s bringing something fresh to the gaming industry and then there’s pushing the boundaries of new and unique and managing to create the most beautiful disaster seen this generation. Without trying to spoil anything, you need to have some kind of talent to screw up the ending of a game so badly. I’d suggest googling what happens at the end for those curious enough to know, but in my eyes it was lazy and completely uninspired. Maybe it was based on some form of historical event that I don’t know about, but if you can chuck Enoch on a motorbike in some futuristic city on Earth, then surely you can take some liberties and tidy up the last five minutes of your game.

El Shaddai could have been something great, but instead simply reminds me of what happens when a game is crafted based on a great stylistic choice instead of great gameplay decisions. I’d suggest for all those curious to rent this out for a night before running down and putting your hard earned dosh on the line for this. Your eyes will thank you, your brain won’t.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

There was a time where I watched and enjoyed Bleach (the anime, not the liquid) and if it wasn’t for the filler and ever dwindling storyline, I’d probably still be watching it. But alas, years passed and it stopped being a part of my weekly routine. Needless to say, when Bleach Resureccion showed up to be reviewed I was both intrigued and extremely sceptical. If this managed to capture the anime in the same way that the Naruto Storm titles capture Naruto, then there was a high chance I’d come away from the experience thoroughly pleased. But that wasn’t going to happen, was it?

Bucking the trend from the majority of anime inspired videogames, including previous Bleach titles, Resureccion throws away the 1 on 1 fighting style one might expect from a game based on an anime whose entire premise is 1 on 1 fighting, and surrounds you in a fairly linear world that involves many Hollow (the demon monsters from the Bleach world) spawning on your way from A to B. In fact, the developers decided to distance themselves so far from your typical fighting game, that there seems to be absolutely no hint of a multiplayer mode whatsoever.

Bleach Resureccion tries to be a clever RPG-hack n’ slash game, but manages to fail in every way possible. Sure you can level up your characters, but during the incredibly short (and confusing) story mode you’re only likely to use any one character a couple of times each. But that won’t bother you too much as you’ll find yourself far too disappointed with the presentation inside Story Mode to even bother finishing it. In every chapter you are delivered (via text and voiceover) a summary of what has happened minutes before your gaming begins. It usually involves some epic battle or an epic scene, so of course text and absolutely no visual aids is a great way to immerse the player. But immersion is clearly number 1 in Story Mode as the characters babble on during your battles. If you happen to enjoy the Japanese voices of Bleach then forget trying to keep up as the small lines of text are barely visible with the amount of action happening at any one time. In fact, in a game based on an anime with such a deep storyline (as deep as one can find in a weekly anime) it’s strange to see Story Mode treated as if it’s just filler for the real meat and bones of the game: Mission Mode.

Mission Mode is where you’ll spend your time earning XP for your characters and levelling them up via the rather interesting levelling system. HP, Attack and Defense stats can be purchased to help make the most of your Shinigami. Well, it would be if it wasn’t for the fact that Mission Mode is completely repetitive, monotonous and mirrors the exact thing you’d be doing in Story Mode. The graphics are pretty, it has the option to play with the authentic Japanese voiceover cast and has oodles of unlockables, but that doesn’t stop Bleach Resureccion from having next to no gameplay to speak of.

Less than 60 minutes into playing this game I realised I had seen all there was I needed to see to know and this game wasn’t for me, hell, it doesn’t seem to really have an audience at all. Bleach fans might get a thrill over seeing all their favourite characters from the anime pulling off all their best moves, but the presentation of the game never really delivers it in a satisfying way. We get instances of awesomeness each time a mission/chapter starts and then an entire level of button mashing, limited moves and confusing story telling crushes any hope of what the game could have been.

If you don’t know what Bleach is, you’ll surely be left completely clueless as to how the series has picked up so many fans. It’s a shame to see the franchise treated this way, and I continue to yearn for the day that a decent developer gets their hand on the IP and creates a jaw-dropping JRPG with graphics that rival Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

A little over two years ago a small team of developers (now known as Shadow Planet Productions) released a trailer for a game they were working on. Sadly, the team didn’t have the finances required to release the game and were looking for people to fund the publishing of the title. The trailer piqued the interest of a heck of a lot of people from consumers and journalists (myself included), to financiers and publishers. It wasn’t too
long after, that a publisher was on board, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was on its way to people’s consoles.

With ITSP releasing just a few days ago, it’s almost a relief to know that it can be purchased, and I’m sure most core gamers who follow daily gaming news will feel at least a little bit of pride for Shadow Planet Productions. But now the hard work is over, people will buy and play it, and inevitably every single flaw will be picked out and the harsh critique of the wild gamer will sprawl across the internet and crush the hopes and dreams of devs everywhere.

First things first though, the game is great. It’s not perfect by any means, but it looks great, it’s atmospheric and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play. For those who have no idea what ITSP is, let me explain. A small alien creature notices a dark anomaly in his section of the universe which starts taking over his planet. Converting his small platform into a UFO, he sets off to get rid of the ever encroaching darkness and everything it has brought along with it.

This is the last you see of the little alien fellow until the end of the game, but that hasn’t stopped the devs from creating a “character” within the UFO you control. There’s something amazingly inquisitive about the craft when you’re scanning and there’s so much purpose shown when controlling the little extendable claw that you forget that the UFO itself isn’t a living creature.

One of the best features of the game is that unless you go into the obligatory “Help and Options” section of the XBLA title, there is absolutely no tutorial, and I’d suggest staying away from anything that gives you any clues of how to play before going into the game. The reason why is that you have well and truly been thrown into an alien world. Nothing shows any sign of human creation, and even symbols for item pickups are completely alien until you pick them up, have a play and understand what it is that each new pickup does. It’s a great experience that slowly unfurls around you as you progress through theMetroid/Castlevania style gameplay, and you start feeling a little closer to the guy behind the wheel of the craft you’re controlling.

After the first hour or two there was a small feeling that something was missing, that the experience I was having could have been a lot better if only something was different. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but after putting in another hour or so it came to light. There’s just not enough happening at the start, the enemies are all similar (and relatively boring/easy) and you don’t have many ways of interacting with the world around you. Thankfully, this changes in time and any empty feeling I had was well and truly quashed.

The world that Shadow Planet Productions have created is absolutely beautiful. Sure, the silhouette-style isn’t anything new (although it was when they first showed off their trailer 2 years ago), but the game looks and feels fantastic. Creatures animate beautifully, your craft emanates so much character and the bosses really capture your attention thanks to the style of both the creatures and the presentation.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a must buy for any 360 owners out there and anyone who has played aMetroid or Castlevania game will find something familiar yet different here that’s well worth your time and money. The game isn’t long by any means, but for the price of admission you can’t really complain about a 4 – six hour game, and with the inclusion of a co-op style game mode (online and offline) you’ll surely have some extended fun with friends.

Well done on finally getting this game out Shadow Planet Productions.

I’m a bit of a puzzle nut, so when Sudoku: The Puzzle Game Collection showed up on my doorstep I probably reacted in a way that most of you gamers would not. While the thought of more Sudoku – I’m well and truly Sudoku’d out after Brain Training – didn’t get me overly excited, it was that the back of the box stated that there were over 600 puzzles and three new puzzle styles I hadn’t heard of before.

Being a 3DS title, the biggest question that arose was: how will this utilise the touch screen and 3D screen in a meaningful way. Sadly, it doesn’t, but when you’re looking at a puzzle title like this, would you ever think that having it displayed in 3D would improve your experience? Thankfully, with a poor attempt at using the top 3D screen, you’ll be able to switch the 3D slider to the off position and help squeeze a little more battery life out of your 3DS.

If you’ve been conscious over the last five years, Sudoku doesn’t really need any introduction, but the new puzzle styles found inside this collection might. ‘Shikaku’ gives you a grid with some numbers scattered about the place. Each number is an indication of how big a block it has to itself, and it’s up to you to create all the blocks without any overlap (eg a 6 could be inside a 6 x 1 block or a 2 x 3 block). It’s quite an addictive puzzle but there simply aren’t enough of these available.

‘Akari’ is a tough one and maybe a little harder to explain. The play board (a grid again) looks more like a crossword puzzle this time. Some of the darkened squares have numbers in them and these indicate how many “lights” are adjacent to the numbered square. When a light is placed its beam shoots off vertically and horizontally until it touches a blackened square. It’s up to you to have every white square of the grid lit up without having more lights surrounding a number than stated or having a light being lit by another. Tough, addictive and again, simply not enough of these here.

‘Hashi’ is definitely the most enjoyable puzzle in the collection. This could be because it might be a bit easier than the others or my brain just understands them a bit more, either way the concept makes sense and just works. No grid this time, just an empty puzzle board with some numbers scattered about. Each number indicates how many “bridges” go from one number to the next, with a maximum of two bridges going in any direction (e.g. an 8 will have 2 bridges going from each adjacent direction and no more). Sadly, what seems to be a common theme here, there just aren’t enough of these puzzles in this Puzzle Collection.

I understand that the game is called Sudoku: The Puzzle Game Collection but did 300 of the puzzles really need to be all Sudoku? The worst bit being that it’s one of the worst implementations of Sudoku I’ve come across. Brain Training set the standard for this and it seems no-one has bothered to follow suit. This coupled with the fact that there is no way to compare scores or download new puzzles and you’ll suddenly realise there is very limited longevity to this game, which makes the $99.99 pricetag a HEAVY ask.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

Coming off the high that was Shadows of the Damned I was more than eager to play another title I hadn’t heard of in search of the love I had found in unknown games. Having not ever seen a Gundam movie or any of the TV shows, that began back in the late 70s, I was a prime candidate to see the game for what it is and really test the gameplay.

Alas, what I found inside did not tickle my gaming man parts in the same way as SotD, and within minutes I was left confused and completely and utterly underwhelmed, but with a persistent heart I carried on and delved as deep into the game as I could before ejecting the disc and hoping that it will never enter my console ever again.

There are moments of absolute joy in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 that really hints at greatness. Beautiful pre-rendered cutscenes intersect moments of the main story but simply don’t happen enough as every single other story-telling moment of the game is done with 2D pop-up characters and text (and occasionally voiceovers). The only other moment of greatness is when you’re surrounded with what seems to be hundreds of Mobile Suits (the name given to the mechs in Gundam) and a quick press of a few buttons results in them nearly all being destroyed via the insanely beautiful super attacks of you and a fellow Mobile Suit operator.

But that’s where the enjoyment ends as within only a few minutes you will have seen everything there is to the game. The game is broken into missions, ranging from story mode to numerous other varieties of side missions, and each and every single mission involves you doing exactly the same thing. Your Mobile Suit lands in an environment which is broken up into several “rooms” and passageways. It’s up to you to obtain each “room” in a capture the zone style way. If it is already owned by the opposing team then it’s just a matter of staying in there long enough and destroying enough of the enemy to claim the zone as your own.

Several zones have unique traits and the further you progress in the game, the more you will realise that there is a strategy to which zones you should be trying to acquire first. Once you’ve taken out enough of the enemy the big boss of the level will appear in whatever zone the enemy has left and it’s just a matter of finding him/her and destroying their suit before yours is destroyed. There’s a little more to it than that as far as how many times you and your enemy “Aces” can respawn, but once you’ve gone through the first mission, you’ve pretty much seen everything there is to see.

I’d love to say that the graphics of Gundam 3 were a treat to behold, but honestly, the majority of the game is spent manoeuvring the camera so you can just see where you’re going. Easily 40 per cent of the screen real estate is taken up with UI and every three seconds or so a team mate or opponent blocks off another 10 – 15% of the screen with some non sequitur: “I’m not a machine! I can’t act like a father to everyone!” I couldn’t find an option to turn off the inane babbling that seems to drown out every other aspect of the game, and had to find a way to block it out myself.

There’s something awkward about learning the game too. Maybe Omega Force were expecting the only people to play this title to be people uncomfortably aware of the previous titles, but the game really isn’t on your side when it comes to teaching you what does what and how to navigate through the game itself. Quite often I had no idea how to get what I wanted and at one stage was confused when new story missions stopped appearing. The flow of the game is absolutely terrible and incredibly confusing; unacceptable in this generation of gaming.

No doubt fans of the series (both game and anime) will find something to love here, what with the 150+ unlockable characters/mobile suits but I can safely say that I doubt anyone else will enjoy this game unless buttonmashing and repetitive battle gameplay is something you enjoy.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

It isn’t often that I find myself in possession of a game I know basically nothing about, and when I do it’s even less likely that I’ll come away from the experience impressed or even entertained. So when Shadows of the Damned showed up on my doorstep I was intrigued yet pessimistic. I mean, when you have Suda 51 (Director of No More Heroes and Killer 7), Shinji Mikami (Director of Resident Evil 4) and Akira Yamaoka (Sound Director of Silent Hill) all putting their names to a title it has to be good, but if I haven’t heard of it, how good can it really be?

The answer just happens to be: INCREDIBLY good. I understand (and I’m sure you do as well) that reviews are subjective, so that 77 you might see over at Metacritic has clearly been comprised of people like myself who adore the game, and people who just didn’t take to it, and while I understand that some critics mightn’t enjoy fun, I’m sure you’re not one of them, right?

The game starts with Garcia Hotspur standing over an injured demon in an alleyway. With skull pistol in hand, Garcia is told how another demon will simply take the place of the one he is about to kill, and so on, and so on, forever. His demon hunting is frivolous and right before Hotspur ends the existence of the injured demon, he is asked about his girlfriend. It’s hard to talk about the game without ruining any major plot points, but needless to say, the demon knows something Garcia doesn’t and soon enough he’s on his way to hell to save her from Fleming (this game’s version of the devil).

It’s on Garcia’s arrival into hell that we meet his sidekick: a British, floating, fiery skull ex-demon called Johnson with shape shifting abilities. Despite the mature rating, and the plethora of adult themes in the game, Johnson just isn’t one for swearing. Sure, he might like the occasional sex chat phone call but he’s a gentleman, and gentleman don’t swear.  The best part of Garcia and Johnson’s relationship is that it is never explained,
he’s clearly been with Garcia for a while and they’ve undoubtedly been through a lot in the past. It almost feels like you’re watching part two of an action film when it comes to their friendship, but by the time you get to the end of the game, everything will fall into place. As you first hear the banter between the two upon their arrival into hell, and Johnson changes into a kick-ass motorbike for Garcia, you’ll be hard pressed not to be
smiling as the title screen finally arrives.

Shadows of the Damned never takes itself seriously, and in this case, it’s a good thing. Bizarre pick-ups are littered about hell and while they each have an explanation as to their existence, the game doesn’t hide from the fact that they really don’t have a place in reality. Hungry baby demon faces keep doors locked with strawberries, eyeballs and brains being the key. Why strawberries? Why it’s because “they’re like catnip to demons”. Need to insert that massive blue gem into that small indent in Johnson’s cranium? Garcia knows it won’t fit, he even says so, but that doesn’t stop him from trying and succeeding. What surprised me the most with the humour was the abundance of dick jokes. In any other game I’d say there would be no way for
them to be inserted appropriately but not once did they feel tacked on or cheesy, even the pistol Johnson becomes doesn’t seem so ludicrous in the grand scheme of the game (“it’s called the Boner….. what? It shoots bones!”)

Gameplay is what you might expect from your average third person shooter. An over the shoulder viewpoint with no cover system and some beautifully satisfying headshots. The big difference with SotD is the inclusion of a dark/light system that we’ve seen in most other genres. Being hell, there are certain creatures/objects that expel darkness, and soon enough you’ll be surrounded with the life draining lack of light, unable to run and dark, unkillable demons heading your way. I wasn’t expecting to find myself short of breath with white knuckles wrapped tightly around my controller when playing Shadows of the Damned, but it really does a great job of making you feel like Garcia could die at anytime. A lot of this is due to the amazing sound design, but also because you’ll be scrambling to bring light back to the darkness, avoiding demons that progressively get tougher, all the while trying to figure out exactly how you’ll be dealing with the bosses.

I was quite captivated with SotD’s take on the lord of the Underworld, the Grim Reaper and the other bosses. And while there is an air of darkness to everything that happens in the game, it’s hard not to smile and fall in love with one of the most evil bosses when it can’t open its mouth without screaming “F*CK YOU!”  You will die a few times trying to find exactly how you’re supposed to deal with each boss, but it’s nice that the answer isn’t directly in front of you the second you see them.

Which leads us into the puzzle section of the game. While there aren’t any moments that’ll leave you stumped, you will have to survey the environment to find keys to doors, or the right way to align certain objects to get through to the next stage of the game. At no point did I feel put out by any of the challenges thrown my way, and some of the later “bonus stage” style challenges managed to entertain more so than the rest of the game (to the point where I filmed it with my iPhone just to show some friends what kind of absurd scenario I was playing through). Needless to say I was snickering through the recording and my friends’ interests were piqued.

As for the snickering, I found the game incredibly funny; in fact there were moments where I had to put the controller down just so I could compose myself. Sure, the majority of the humour is immature but if you’re the kind of person that enjoyed late 80s/early 90s action comedies, I think you’ll find this right up your alley; and if it wasn’t for the fantastic voice acting (for Garcia and Johnson anyway) the jokes could have fallen
completely flat.

Graphically the game is nothing special. Running on the Unreal engine brings about some issues that some developers are yet to overcome. Occasionally, the textures slowly fade into existence and for whatever reason the collision detection can be a bit strict when making your way around the environment. While the graphical side does show a little lack of polish, it never stops the game from being the fun experience it is, it is odd, however, as the sound design is damn-near flawless. While there was one track that seemed a little out of place, I couldn’t help but feel my fear level was being toyed with thanks to the immersive sounds and score. There are some amazing musical moments in the game with the loading screens taking the crown by offering a little respite from the dreary with a little humour to boot.

When all is said and done, I can’t recommend this game enough. There’s a chance you haven’t even heard of it, and the only things you know of the game have come from this review, and it will only make the experience all the much better. In the eight hours it’ll take you to fight your way through hell, you’ll experience some rather dark scenes, some amazing man-demon comraderie, dick joke after dick joke and some fantastic spins on some classic western mythology. What might come as a surprise though, is that when you are done with Shadows of the Damned, you’ll start thinking back to earlier seemingly insignificant moments of the game and begin piecing things together. Hidden in this immature self-confessed “road movie” of a game is a well-written and planned out story that will leave you eager for more.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

With my recent attraction to JRPGs, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie couldn’t have shown up at a better time. The Dragon Quest series is an enormous franchise over in Japan, and despite having played none of the nine from the main series and precisely zero of any of the spin-offs I was actually excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Square Enix have had a bit of fun of remastering a handful of the DQ titles onto the Nintendo DS, with DQ VI being the latest to receive the overhaul. A quick stop off at YouTube showed me exactly what I had missed out on with Enix (as they were known in the mid 90s) having never released this outside of Japan; dated SNES graphics and text for speech taking up about 2/5ths of the screen.

While DQVI has been slammed by some critics as having a rather laughable storyline (hey, it’s over 15 years old now), I found myself quite captivated by what was going on. The game starts with your character (the hero of the game) waking from a dream with a bit of amnesia. After reacquainting himself with the townsfolk, he has been asked to head off and pick up a crown for the upcoming festival. After trying to aid a man in need of help, your character is thrust into a world where he can’t be seen; the “phantom world” or “dream world”. As is always the case in almost every JRPGs (or game in general), there’s an evil character tormenting the world your character lives in and it of course falls upon his shoulders to find out how to take him down.

While that is nothing new, what is nice is that after 10 hours of gaming you’ll have had the story flip, twist and turn in on itself enough that you might start thinking you’re nearing the final encounter, only to find that you’ve barely even scratched the surface. Boasting approximately 40 hours, Dragon Quest VI ensures that you’ve always got something on or you’re learning something new; hell, the entire battle system doesn’t even really open up fully in the first quarter of the game.

My only real gripes with the game are things that are just unchanged game design flaws from the mid 90s. Random encounters with enemies happen every 5 – 10 steps; an overpowered enemy will come out of nowhere, kill your entire
team and send you back 30 minutes; save points are few and far between. But that’s not to say the game is bad, it’s just retro, and you wouldn’t be playing this game if you weren’t trying to give yourself a retro experience, it just wouldn’t be fun that way.

But this is where my shortcomings as a gamer stepped in. I have never been a huge JRPG fan, and I have never played a retro one before. This game, for me at least, is HARD. It starts you off easily enough and with the amount of
direction the game gives you I felt like maybe I was rushing ahead a bit too fast. The amount of enemy encounters was high so I felt that I was doing all the grinding I needed to do, but you can’t grind enough in this game. You will reach boss fights you can’t win until you level up a bit more, and the game will frustrate you by interrupting your travel to a new city every few seconds. The one thing that helps push me through the game is the story and the fact that an awesome vocational system helps your characters grow; also, your characters keep their XP if they die in battle and are revived at your last save point.

As an update to an old game, the first and most obvious update comes in the form of the graphical presentation. While characters are still 2D sprites, the world has been given a nice 3D conversion, with some of the cutscenes
adding a lot to what is essentially still the same game. Thankfully, the sound too has had a bit of an update, and while the catchy little jingles that populate the Dragon Quest world are likely to stick in your head for quite some time, there’s just not enough variation to what you hear, and if you do happen to make it through the 40 hour adventure, you’ll be lucky to forget the battle tune.

If you’re looking for a retro JRPG experience then if I can enjoy this I don’t see why you couldn’t too. If you’re not, then I don’t see you enjoying the facets of gameplay that are synonymous with retro JRPGs. I have enjoyed what time I have put into Dragon Quest VI and hopefully I’ll continue enjoying it as I make my way through to the end. The game has its shortfalls, but I imagine they’re all hangovers from the original title. In the end, this is a hard game to just give a number to, so please take the number I assign as an indication of my enjoyment with the game and not
whether or not it stands out from all the new IP that has hit in the last few months. Buy this if you’re looking for a retro experience, or if you’re a fan of the Dragon Quest franchise.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz

This whole Dead or Alive Dimensions fiasco is just ridiculous for so many reasons. Basically a handful of European countries have banned the 3DS title from being sold in their countries because the game breaks their child pornography rules, and despite the game being certified PG here and in Australia, the game has now been unclassified and is banned from sale in Australia.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that any game that breaks a country’s child porn rules should be sold, but as far as Australia matters (I don’t know if the NZ version is the same as the one that went to the European countries) the game just doesn’t break those rules. First of all it is stated that the big reason the game is being pulled is due to girls under the age of 18 can be photographed in a way that allows the user to see their underwear.

Yes, there is a photography mode where you select a character, a preset pose from a list of unlockable poses and move the camera around them to take 3D photos, and yes, in some costumes, in certain poses, you can move the camera to see their tidy whities. Are any of the girls under 18? Not in the Australia/New Zealand version they aren’t. On each of the stats pages for the characters is a slew of information, one of which being age. I know that some versions of the game have the offending girl’s ages as under 18, but in our localised copy the ages for the three girls is clearly N/A. So they could be 17, if you so chose to think that way, but the way the girls look they could easily be anywhere in their 20s.

So what makes Dead or Alive Dimensions offensive? The fact that we don’t know their age? Excuse me, but that’s just plain bullshit. Sure, these characters have unlockable school girl costumes, but that’s more of a throwback to the fetishism of the Japanese schoolgirl than it is them being schoolgirls. Nowhere in the story mode do we see the girls associated with highschool and their ages aren’t listed anywhere.

If all the other female characters had their ages set to N/A would we be seeing the same fearmongering from the media? Or is this all because somewhere, someone is playing a version that states those characters are under 18? It’s just plain ridiculous for the Australian classifications to uncertify a game based on information that ISN’T IN THE GAME THEY ARE UNCERTIFYING. It makes little to no sense.

I hope that people of the media see this and understand the lies they are spreading. They don’t help the image of gaming and it shows them to be the amateurs they are to the gamers who actually know what’s going on in the world of gaming.

Rant over.

Oh, and here’s a clip from Dead or Alive 2, a game that was released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast. Note that the girl shown in this video is one of the “underage” girls from Dead or Alive Dimensions and there was NO media issue with this when it launched.

Originally posted on www.GameCulture.co.nz when DOA:D was busy getting banned.