So I understand that Xenoblade Chronicles is still yet to be announced in the US and there hasn't been much news on it for several weeks so I'd just thought I'd let those who care know that Nintendo seem to have taken extra interest in the game through there Club Nintendo system. I have received an email asking me to fill out a (very in depth) questionnaire regarding the game, now I have been a member of CN for nearly 2 years and I have not once been asked to do such a task for other titles in the past. I'd like to think this is good news and shows that Nintendo are trying to determine the kind of reception it has received over here in the UK before making a final decision on its release in other areas.

Just thought i'd give those who care the heads up, personally I think its a no brainer, the game is excellent despite its drawbacks. (incredibly slow start takes about 10 hours before they stop introducing new tutorials to you)

OK, so I’ve come to the conclusion over the past 10 years that some games age well, while others age faster than Sonic on speed, in fact thinking about it, Sonic is probably the best example of a series decaying rapidly over time, this is partially due to a mixture of changes within the genres of the industry, the preferences of the majority, emergence of new audiences (FPS Excessives anyone?) and the need to constantly reinvent to appeal to the next generation (No, not Star Trek fans).

Anyway I have decided to write a series of blogs (obviously length will depend on whether anyone cares to read them) looking back at some of the classics from the beginning of this generation and determine whether they have survived the passing of time gracefully or withered like a Christmas tree from the millennium.




First up we have Resistance: Fall of Man. (I will be focusing on Single Player only)



This Playstation exclusive was released in 2006 as a launch title for the PS3 and was considered the “Halo” killer for the Playstation Brand at the time, with an average score of 86 on Metacritic and sales of just under 4 million (Vgchartz, about as reliable as Wikipedia) the game was a monumental success particularly in the FPS genre where only Killzone carried the most of the weight for the Playstation previously. It was lauded particularly for its excellent graphical presentation and its ‘tight’ control system.

The analysis is broken down into five sections, Game Play, Graphics, Mechanics, Control and Satisfaction.

Game Play – The gun play is truly what makes this game tick, the accuracy and ease of use of each and every weapon in the game is a joy to experience, this makes the game seem fair despite a few somewhat despicable tricks used throughout the campaign which some may justifiably see as “dirty tactics” (guns which can fire through blind walls for example). With such ease of use the game does a good job of empowering the player, genuinely making you feel like you can overcome any obstacle, this also makes deaths seem more justifiable as the player is given the ability to fight back just as effectively against the enemies. Unfortunately the melee attacks do not follow suit in battle, the hit detection is absolutely atrocious (Think Black Ops magnified by 5), I was able to melee enemies from ridiculous distances and to make matters worse so were they, on many occasions I could actually see the motion the enemy took to hit me. (How can you see the punch after you’ve just been hit by it?) This would often not be too much of an issue however in Resistance the power of the fist is indeed mightier than the gun, the amount of damage dealt by a mere blow is enough to knock at least 50% health off, this is particularly problematic in one of the games many open areas.
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Graphics[/b] – Obviously this is where you would expect the game to suffer the most, however it has held up surprisingly well considering it’s approaching its 5th Birthday. The environments remain detailed and texture pop in is low which is also surprising considering some of today’s more ragged efforts (Looking at you Call of Juarez!) still struggle to cope with this issue. The animations are solid but explosions are unconvincing (Smoke, that’s all we get most of the time) and enemy/ally movement is laughable, often they will find themselves either stuck on the smallest of hills or embedded in the best 1950’s cookie cutter vehicles the game has to offer. Now this brings me to my biggest foible (if you will) the constant re-use of assets, backgrounds and textures, this is perhaps the largest drawback and is most certainly noticeable the longer you play the game, areas start to become very familiar in a boring sense and detract from the playing experience in the long run.

Mechanics – Some of the design decisions taken in the game are questionable, pacing is extremely poor with checkpoints scattered in random places, and this is further exacerbated by the notification process used to provide information to the player; whenever the game needs to tell you something a message will appear in top left hand corner, this can vary from picking up ammo to reaching a checkpoint however, this text often disappears so quickly it is difficult to determine what it says, particularly in a fire fight. On several occasions I found myself wondering when the last checkpoint was and how far back I would have to go if I died. The biggest disappointment I found was the story telling techniques used, the game’s narrative is primarily conveyed through pictures and a narrator, there are very few actual cut scenes and as such it was very difficult to actually give a dam about the main character (so much so that I’ve forgotten his name already). The lack of a sprint button also boggles my mind, how the developers thought it was acceptable to create a FPS set in primarily open areas without giving the player the ability to transverse these areas quickly is beyond me.

Controls – Unfortunately the controls in the game feel extremely outdated, triangle is melee which feels very unnatural and is easily forgotten ( I died several times running up to an enemy only to press the wrong button and change gun instead, unfortunately this doesn't quite pack the same punch), a click of the analogue stick is required to zoom (this is forgiveable as it was the norm when the game was released ) however in this particular game control in zoom is slow and thus requires the player to zoom out in order to regain any scope of the surrounding area, this leads to the player being forced to zoom in and out repeatedly and can be frustrating, particularly in a fire fight with enemies flanking (which they do, it’s about all they do).

Satisfaction – Although the game is almost half a decade old it is still fun to play despite its drawbacks, the gun play is excellent and this is probably the game’s saving grace as it overcomes the poor pacing, repetitive environments and control system to provide an experience which is still worthwhile today.


[b]Summary
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Resistance has managed to maintain its playability and fun as its level design and game play save it from what would otherwise be considered a slow and painful death as the method of storytelling, game mechanics and absolutely god awful control system feel extremely outdated in comparisons to their modern counter-parts.

Rating

Middle Aged, Heading Towards a Mid-Life Crisis

Explanation Of Rating – The game has aged reasonably well however its decline is likely to continue and in another five years it is likely the problems which have surfaced now will be much more of an issue, this one is not immortal and will eventually die.

Just recently I have been having warnings from my Norton Antivirus stating the site has 34 threats, can anyone just verify to me that these are harmless. I understand the community blogs are no place for a comment such as this however I am currently experiencing issues with the forums, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Ok after searching the internet long and hard I cannot find anyone else with this issue so heres hoping somebody here knows whats going on.

I like many other gamers purchased FF 13 on the Xbox 360 on Tuesday, once I arrived home I played the game for an hour then decided to have a break, when I came back to my Xbox I attempted to resume playing the game but when I put the disc in it wouldn't read, I tried putting other discs in and hey wouldn't read either, after many many tests I came to the conclusion that the Xbox had broken ( as they do). So I decided I would play on my brothers, this was all good the same as before until I attempted to play it for the second time where I received the same error message, as the first, the console would attempt to read the disk but fail.
Now this could just be coincidence but both Xbox's breaking one after the other seems very strange especially as the incidents are exactly the same. Im now out two Xboxs and I can't play FF though at the the moment that is the least of my worries.

Can anyone please gives me a heads up as to exactly whats going on, it would be very much appreciated.

After playing Fifa 10 for well over 50 hours, I have come to the conclusion that although it is the best incarnation of the series, the amount of problems, inaccuracies and glitchs included within the gameplay makes it the most frustrating and irritating game yet. Most are related to either a lack of understanding from the developers, lazy programming or just a conflicting AI. Although none of these issues are game breaking they do detract from the game's overall quality.

1. Automatic Goalkeepers On One On Ones
In previous Fifas the player was given the option to bring the goalkeeper out,this provided the player choice and made the goalie very unprodictable however in this the newest version the player has no freedom to make the choice, the goalie will always leave his line in order to close down the player, this leaves the goal vulnerable to lob shots which online especially are utilised to the full.

2. Open Legged Players
The majority of players in Fifa 10 have there legs open more than a sex addicted hooker, the amount of times they will step over the ball when attempting a tackle or block is rediculous, trying to defend a cross along the ground is near impossible sometime as up to three players will watch it go though there legs and into the back of the net, this is worst against human players who seem to have a knack of taking advantage of this flaw.

3. Incorrect Implementation Of The Offside Rule
For those who know the rules of football/soccer they will know the offside rule is perhaps one of the most confusing and controversial rules in sport, now I can imagine implementing this rule into any game must be extremely difficult however in my opinion this does not excuse the developers of there lazy programming. Anyway the issue I have is relating to deflections, when the ball is played and bounces of the opposing player falling to another player who is in an offside position play should continue, however in Fifa no matter how big or obvious the deflection the offside is always given, now this is a severe issue as generally these decisions are given in goal scoring opportunities and have the potential to effect the final result.

4. Player AI
Now I understand footballers are seen by most as unintelligent but Fifa 10 takes there stupidity to a whole new level, on several occasions they will run to intercept a ball only to run straight past it leaving them out of position and looking like a complete and utter fool. The idea of passing seems straight forward enough but even so the majority of the time they will make passes that just don't make any sense, for example passing it back into there own half from the opposition's box.

Goalie AI
In my opinion this is the worst issue in the entire game, the goalies are perhaps the stupidest players on the pitch, on lob shots they will only dive on the spot, no matter how weak the shot may be if its on target and it goes above the goalies head it will go in, not only is this rediculously unrealistiic but also takes out any skill required in order to do a lob shot. The best goalkeepers in the game have the decision making of flipping David James, they leave themselves vulnerable unnecessarily especially on crosses where they more often than not will go to punch/catch a ball that Peter Crouch would have trouble to reach usually leaving the goal empty for the receiving player to score an open goal.

I did have more but I thought i'd stop at five as most of you won't read the whole thing or read it at all, especially with the hate sports games generally receive from dedicated game sites, personally I will be surprised if this gets more than three comments but anyway im glad I got these problems of my chest and im sure those of you who have played Fifa 10 know exactly what im talking about.

1st Blog of 2010

Similarly to most teenagers playing video games is an expensive hobby, prices are ever increasing and value for money is decreasing as developers focus more on quality of game play rather than on the length of the game. This has created a squeeze on most gamers wallets, in this situation there are three valid options, trade-in older games (which I personally hate doing), save until a game can be purchased while indulging in other activities, or replaying previous games. When I find myself in this situation I generally choose option three as some games are designed to be played multiple times, and others warrant a second play through just based on their quality.

After finding myself in this situation and scanning through the vast library of video games at my disposal I decided to replay Gears Of War, after having fond memories of my original play through I presumed the second would be just as enjoyable, oh how wrong I was. The game was awful, it was frustrating, glitchy and worst of all, boring, all of the fun I had experienced on my previous playthrough had disappeared and I was left with a monotonous dull TPS.

Believing it to be repetitiveness of the game play I was convinced it was just one of those games that was not designed for more than one play through. My anticipation for Gears of War 2 was still at fever pitch despite the extreme disappointment of my previous experience and I waited eagerly at my local Chips store at the midnight launch to get my copy such was my admiration for the series and my first playthrough. However upon completing the first level I realised something that deeply frustrated me, the game again appeared similar to my second playthrough of GOW even though this was my first of GOW 2. Somehow my second playthrough had not only ruined GOW but also GOW 2, each level felt the same as the previous incarnation and completing the game was felt nothing short of a catastrophe and a colossal waste of my time.

After finally completing the game and struggling through the hardships that were its campaign I tried to find some reason for my degraded experience, but not matter how hard I tried I could not think or even contemplate any particular reason why I should not be enjoying this game.
To this day I still cannot understand why my playing experience changed so dramatically over such a short period of time, it confuses me but also intrigues me as I wonder...

How does a game change without changing?







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