Plants vs Zombies

One game that seems made for the iPad is Plants vs. Zombies It is a bit like a tower defence game, but with fantastic graphics and beautifully paced gameplay. Number one son put me on to it, and I’m very glad he did.

Great fun.

Split/Second Looks Excellent

I used my new, high speed, internet connection to download a demo of Split/Second today. The 815M came down the line in around 12 minutes or so, which was nice.

The game looks excellent. It is a mix of Burnout, Need for Speed and Super Mario Kart, with destructible scenery which is all set up for maximum mayhem. Accumulate power by drifting and tailgating other cars and then use this to unleash the environment on your opponents. If you thought the red shell in Mario Kart was nasty, then you haven’t seen anything yet. We are talking exploding buildings, out of control aircraft and all kinds of other bad stuff. After a few tries I realised that first place is probably not  place you want to be until the very last part of the race, what with everyone behind you lining up to blow you away.

The handling model for the car (at least on the demo) is quite forgiving, but I don’t think people will really be playing it as any kind of simulation. If you think of it as a big budget car chase action movie where you get to drive, then you are pretty much there.

Split/Second was written by Black Rock Studios, who are division of Disney Interactive and are based in Brighton in the UK. They presently employ quite a few of our graduates and our students visited them earlier in the year for a look at their HQ. The game comes out in the UK in a week or two. I shall definitely be getting a copy. 

Cletus Clay Rocks

Cletus Clay, in the flesh at Platform 2010

Yesterday at Hull Platform 2010 we had a really good talk from Sarah Web who told us all about Cletus Clay, a new videogame which is being made using “Claymation” animation. This looks absolutely fantastic, with lots of down home humour and cow abducting aliens. You can find out all about Cletus, and even discover how to build some of the game characters yourself at http://www.cletusclay.com/

I am definitely going to get a copy of this game when it comes out…

DSi XL Console Review

DSi and DSi XL showing the difference in size

It seems that the fashion is for making bigger versions of existing things. Apple come out with their iPad, which is very big version of the iPod touch and now Nintendo come out with the DSi XL, which is a very big version of the DSi. (Actually, you could probably accuse Apple of copying Nintendo here, since the DSi XL has been out in Japan for a while and I think it has been something of a success there).

You get pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, in that the new DSi is just bigger than the old one. But the screen is also a lot brighter (the photo above doesn’t really do this justice) and the extra size does make a difference to gameplay. I found I was suddenly better at Ridge Racer, in that I could spot corners from further away, and Zoo Keeper looks really, really good.

Along with a dictionary you also get a free “taster” version of Brain Training built in. This told me my brain was 80 years old. Perhaps I should take the console back to the shop.  In fact a potentially large market for this device is folks like me who are a bit more advanced in years and appreciate the larger screen, although I’m surprised they didn’t make the buttons bigger as well.

If you have already got a DSi then the new one doesn’t really move things forward much, unless you are a bit short sighted like me. But if you have yet to buy one, I reckon you should get this one, along with a jacket with slightly larger pockets….

Mass Effect 2 Game Review

I must admit that I’ve not actually played the game. But I have watched number one son play quite a bit of it on his laptop. Seeing him play you could have mistaken the action for a movie. The dialogue is so seamless, with the voice acting so pitch perfect for the various options he was choosing that it was only when I saw the screen that I figured out that he was actually making selections, and not just watching a cut scene.

The action looks good too, with a rich (if a bit scary) story beginning to play out. Anyone who doesn’t think that video games can stand alongside other art forms is seriously behind the times. This really is a new medium, and games like this show just what you can do with it.

Excellent.

Keeping Fit with Wii Fit Plus

I took this picture, and the one on yesterday’s blog, while I was out in India at the Imagine Cup World Finals in 2006. We visited Akbar’s Tomb to do some work there, and I tried to look busy by taking lots of photographs.

I’ve been playing with the Wii Fit Plus software. This uses the Wii Balance Board to keep you fit. I was quite pleased to find that, since I last used the Wii Fit a while back, I’ve only put on a couple of pounds. However, I did tell it I was wearing heavy clothing……

The game is pretty much the same as before really, although there are some neat new exercises (I like the Kung Fu one) and enhancements to the older ones. All of the exercises are now unlocked at the start, which seems sensible to me, and by the end of half an hour I’d managed to work up a bit of a sweat. I’m trying, again, to get some kind of an exercise regime going, and with a bit of luck this might fit the bill. If you will pardon the pun.

Mad World Shopping

Three bags full

Did the shopping today. All on my own. I did have a list, but even so I’m very impressed with myself. Anyhoo, the supermarket was selling off Mad World for the Nintendo Wii for a very nominal sum and so I invested in a copy.

Note: I never buy a computer game. I invest in a copy. This makes it sound much less like a waste of money. Although, perhaps investing is a waste of money these days too .

Anyhoo, once I had got home and figured out which cupboard to put things in (Hint: Use the very cold cupboard with a light inside, I think it is called a fridge, for items like yoghurt and sausages) I had a go at the game.

It is very bloodthirsty, violent and foul mouthed. You play a participant in a warped TV gameshow who has a chainsaw for an arm.  The gameplay revolves around extreme violence where you use the chainsaw, road signs and just about anything else around to bloodily despatch people who are presumably very bad. At least I hope they are/were…..

When you go into chainsaw mode the Wii remote actually makes chainsaw noises. The game  is like being inside a slasher movie and has absolutely no moral centre. I quite like it.

Bayonetta Review

Hull in the snow

Bayonetta is bonkers. But great fun. I got a copy today and have spent a couple of hours playing it and I’m hooked. You play the role of the last surviving witch doing battles against avenging angels in a quest to  uncover your past . Or something. It is a third person fighting game with amazing special combat moves that defy explanation.

Bayonetta herself comes across as a kind of “Steam Punk Lara Croft on Acid” with a nice line in laconic dialog. You get your special moves by learning particular button combinations (or you go for the Easy mode where it figures out what button to press for you) and they let you do incredible things to your enemies, including lob them into torture chambers that you can conjure up out of thin air.

The action and the story zip along at quite a rate, and to be honest I’ve not got that much of an idea what is going on. However, I’ll keep playing to find out how it ends.

Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves video game review

Uncharted 2 is a follow up to Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, a PS3 platformer in the Tomb Raider mould. It follows the fortunes of Nathan Drake in his ongoing quest to find ancient treasures and stuff like that.

It is very good. Perhaps one of the best looking games that I have seen for a long time. The attention to detail in in the graphics is astonishing. You find yourself wishing you could stop and take a proper look at the scenery as it whizzes past – which would be much easier if you weren’t on top of a moving train with heavies coming towards you and a helicopter gunship hovering above spraying you with lead. Actually, I didn’t play the game as I was watching number one son do all the hard work. I saw myself in more of a supervisory role, saying helpful things like “Try shooting at him” or “Did you really mean to do that?” at appropriate times.

The story is reasonably absorbing, involving the usual mix of temples, treasures and chaps with dodgy accents trying to kill you. And a love triangle. In this episode you are much more likely to have a computer powered character around with you who gives you a good lead on where to go and makes the whole thing more like a proper adventure. There is also a multi-player option (some of the levels look like they have been really designed with this in mind). I’ll be having a go at that once I’ve finished the game itself.

If you are new to Nathan Drake I’d advise that you pick up a copy of the first Uncharted second hand (you should be able to get it for around a tenner as it has been out for a while) and then, having really enjoyed that, you can move onto Uncharted 2 and have even more fun.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Number one son bought a copy of Batman, Arkham Asylum yesterday, and spent the evening playing it while I watched. Very, very good. Batman has managed to recapture the joker after a suspiciously easy chase and accompanies him to the asylum to make sure the joker is properly re-habilitated. And of course it all goes wrong.

The action seems quite linear, in that you have to work your way through a series of challenges to unravel what has happened and rescue everyone, but the thing I really like is the whole setup. The artwork and sound have been beautifully realised to create a very impressive environment in which batman has to make every move really count. I especially like the “detective view” which seems to work just like those “X-Ray” specs you saw advertised on comic books claimed to. Batman himself is nicely gritty and ironic, and very mortal, for all his gadgets.

Great fun, and another example of just how close to film realistic video games are getting.

Pain

Went up town today. Bought a copy of a game called Pain for the PS3. It is not what you would consider intellectually demanding (but then again I don’t want any demands made of my intellect just at the moment).

Anyhoo, Pain just gives you a destructible environment, a very large catapult. And a victim. You just fire the victim out of the catapult and watch as they bounce off the scenery suffering all manner of impact damage.

There are quite a few different scenes, a number of different people to fire (including David Hasselhoff if you pay an extra pound – not worth it though) and some themed games where you have to hit targets and stuff.

I think long term appeal is somewhat restricted, but as a quick blast it is quite fun.

Wii Motion Plus and Grand Slam Tennis

I’ve always liked the Wii. This doesn’t actually translate into playing with it that much as it turns out, but I still like the device itself.  My favourite game on it has always been the Wii Sports Tennis, because it feels a bit like playing the actual game. Nintendo have just released a controller upgrade for the Wii remote which is supposed to add even better motion detection (it contains a rotation detector so that the games can when you are twisting the controller). At the same time (and rather cleverly bundled with it) they have released a new tennis game.

Of course I got one. The tennis game itself is very good, and the improvements to the control over the way you swing the racket and direct the ball really make a difference.

Of course I can’t do it. I think I may have to unlearn a whole lifetime of tennis, squash and badminton. In Grand Slam Tennis you can use the control to direct the ball after you’ve hit it (something I always wanted to do in my tennis days, but never quite managed). Unfortunately for me this means that I direct the ball out of the court nearly every time, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it at some point.

The game doesn’t try to make the characters lifelike, setting instead for cartoony representations of all the big tennis names. This actually works a treat, and looks a lot better than some other tennis games where the players get stuck in the middle of the “uncanny valley” with zombie flesh and strangely glowing teeth. The fact that the Wii can’t actually render to the standard of the other two platforms must have driven that decision, but I think the game looks better for it.

I’ve yet to try multi-player, I have hopes that will be fun too. Until Microsoft come out with Project Natal this will do for me.

Professor Layton will Steal Your Life

I picked up a second hand game for the Nintendo DS on last week. “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”. It is a collection of 130 puzzles wrapped around a plot where you have to find “The Golden Apple”, left in a legacy by a mysterious baron. The adventure is set in a Japanese version of France, in a village called St. Mystere and with a cast of eccentrics that also seem to be getting murdered and disappeared one by one.  And everyone you meet has a puzzle they want you to solve.

Some of them are easy, some more tricky. I’ve done 40 or so puzzles so far and I’ve only found one that I’ve not been able to crack, and that is just because I’m too lazy to work it out the hard way. The game is great fun. I really like the way that the puzzles have no time limit, so I can ponder them at my leisure.  It has taken far more of my time than I should spend playing games, and is a nice illustration of the way that games are developing to bring in a wider range of players. I can strongly recommend it.

Nintendo DSi

As a reward for finishing off Chapter 14 I went up town and had a look at the new Nintendo DSi. This is an update of the Nintendo DS which has been around for a while. This has a couple of cameras, bigger screens and can play music off an SD card (although not MP3 songs). GameStation were doing a trade in deal on the old DS Lite which brought the price down to something sensible and, since I happened to have my old DS Lite and power supply with me (what are the chances of that eh?) I got a less shiny new black device.

Very nice. The new larger screens look excellent, and the camera games and audio games are great fun. I’m told that the battery life on the new devices isn’t as good, but I’ve not noticed this yet. The only real problem is that, as there are no DSi games out there yet, the machine doesn’t really represent much of an advance on the old DS, but it does have a faster processor and will also support the download of games into memory (it has 256M) and also SD card.

I downloaded a couple of games from the online DS store via the home WiFi, along with the free browser which works quite well (although it ran out of memory showing my Gmail pages) and so long term prospects are promising.

And Zoo Keeper has never looked so good.

Valkyria Chronicles

Yesterday I finished the PS3 game Uncharted. Only started playing it in October last year. Go me. If you’ve not played the game I can strongly recommend it. Very much in the Tomb Raider mould, with some great level designs.

I’ve now moved on to Valkyria Chronicles from Sega. Number one son bought a copy whilst he was with us at Christmas, and since it was a good price I bought it a couple of weeks back. It is a turn based strategy game, a bit like the Advance Wars games that are so good on the Nintendo handhelds, but with lots of personality, a strong storyline and fantastic graphics. You get to hand pick, train and equip your troops before going off to fight against the Imperial forces (I was wondering if Imperial forces have always been the bad guys, perhaps it started with Star Wars).

The game itself has a very strong moral theme, starting with just how horrible war itself is, with picture postcard villages reduced to mud and wreckage before your eyes, and normal people dragged into the fight.

I’m enjoying playing it, except for one thing. If you are not careful some of your comrades in arms get shot. I hate this bit. Fortunately you can get them treated and evacuated from the battlefield, and I’ve not lost anyone permanently yet, but it is starting to worry me that I might in the future.  I know that they don’t exist, and that the whole thing is actually a block of data running inside an unfeeling lump of hardware, but it still bothers me.

Party Buzz

We had a few folks round tonight for a "Late New Years Eve Party" kind of thing. I got out the Buzz game that I bought for the Departmental Christmas Bash (and then forgot the disk) and we had a go. It was very successful. There are four wireless remotes with selector buttons which are used by the players to answer questions on a range of subjects in a well presented quiz show format.Great fun.

Apparently the voice of Buzz is Jason Donovan, which is interesting (well, it interested me for a second or so anyway). If you want to keep a bunch of folks amused for an hour or so it works well. The in game characters you can select are great fun and the format, although a bit repetitive after a while, works well. I think you can create your own questions as well. Anyone fancy a C# version?

Of course the best ever computer quiz game was "You Don't Know Jack" which was absolutely hilarious...

Farcry 2 is Wonderful

Number one son picked up a copy of Farcry 2 earlier this week. Anyone who doubts the ability of computer games to create a believable world should take a look at this game. Just about everything works as it should and the appearance of the game world is amazing.

I went to a session at GDC earlier this year where they were talking about how they "grew" the scenery programmatically.  Rather than having artists who placed each tree and blade of grass they actually wrote code that simulated the way that that everything grows from its starting point. Very impressive.

Need for Speed Undercover Mostly Wanted

I'm a bit of a sucker for the Need for Speed games. I think this dates from my early experiences on the Playstation 1, where you got to drive a real Ferrari  (honest) through a flickering landscape of pop up buildings. I even got one of the first steering wheel peripherals to enhance the, ahem, driving experience. I especially liked the way that you got cuffed and stuffed if you failed to outrun the police.

When I got my Xbox 360 I spent ages playing a downloaded demo of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" where you had to break free of the cops in a large city environment. Great fun, even if number one son complained that the car handling was floaty and imprecise (it was) and the way the graphics engine chugged when there was a lot going on made him sea sick (it did). However I enjoyed it so much I even bought the game.

Because the next two Need for Speed games seemed to play down the police chase aspect I wasn't that interested in them. I think that the publisher EA probably got into a bit of hot water for making a game that encouraged you to indulge in such anti-social activities as ramming road blocks and forcing squad cars into bridge pillars. Fortunately I seem to be able to distinguish the fantasy world of video games from real life, and so this was never an issue for me, but I missed the car chases.

Until now. Need for Speed Undercover turns you into an undercover cop infiltrating the evil world of dangerous driving by being the, er, most dangerous driver of all. I read some previews of the game where the developer was talking about the advanced car mechanics they've used and the new graphical enhancements and stuff. and they had it cheap in Sainsburys when I was doing the shopping and so I bought it.

Turns out that the car handling is still floaty, and the screen still chugs when there is a lot going on. I reckon they've taken the old Most Wanted engine, changed the layout of the city a bit, turned up the brightness and shipped it.  It is still fun though (but racing purists might not like it as games like Burnout Paradise do this thing a lot better - except for the cop chases).

New Xbox 360 Experience

I fired up my Xbox 360 today and installed the new "Experience". It is a free download from Xbox Live and replaces the original "Blade" front end with a completely different look which I reckon is much easier to navigate. It also lets you create mini-avatars of yourself to use for your interaction with games and other Xbox 360 users. I've no idea where they got the idea for this. I spent a few minutes tweaking my avatar appearance to add my distinctive good looks, which was great fun. Or not.

One of the wonderful things about modern software based devices is the way that they can sprout new behaviours years after you got them thanks to the magic of the firmware upgrade. I now have what feels like a brand new replacement of my console. If you have an Xbox 360 you really must check this out.

Weekends are for Video Games

Actually, they aren't. Not entirely. Apparently there are things like shopping and cleaning to be done as well. But then again, you have to do something when "Casualty" is on the telly.

And it's not watch "Casualty". So I've been playing video games.

Starting with "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" on the PS3. This seems to me as much fun as the original Tomb Raider 2 for the PS1. Not as much fun as Tomb Raider 1, which was ace, but still pretty good. The reason I'm not that keen on it is that, as with Tomb Raider 2, they've added lots of bad guys with guns to slow the action down. The exploring and jumping about is great, once you've managed to stop people shooting with you. The first part of the game was really good, just you and your chum exploring together. Then, after a great level on a submarine, a whole host of blokes with guns better than yours, and more bullets than you, show up round every corner. I'm getting good at headshots, but now they seem to be evolving the ability to survive these, which is irritating to say the least.

I've just given up playing to cool down, if I hear one more of them say "Not so tough now eh?" as idiot Drake turns to black and white and dies in slow-mo. I might chuck the whole thing out of the window. If you are better at gunplay than me you might really enjoy it. The scenery is lush and looks superb, and the whole thing has a very lavish movie feel to it.

The other game I've been playing is "Pure", on PS3 and Xbox 360. Xbox owners looking enviously at Motorstorm, as well they might, now have somewhere to go to get down and dirty on a quad bike. Pure doesn't have the range of vehicles that Motorstorm does, but it does have a huge number of customisation options for your bike. This is a bit irritating at the very start of the game, where you pretty much have to build your ride before you are allowed to go race it, but I guess it comes into its own later in the game. I optimised everything for speed and then had all the parts chromed, which worked fairly well.

Plugging round the muddy courses is great fun, and you can get extra boost by pulling amazing stunts while you and your bike are in the air after a jump. This is hilarious, as you try to work out if you have time to stand on the handlebars before the ground comes up and hits you. The game looks about the same on PS3 or Xbox, and seems to handle you and your 12 competitors on the screen with no slowdown whatsoever.

At this point I have to declare something of a vested interest. Pure was produced by Black Rock studios, a division of Disney interactive. They came to see us earlier this year, hired some of our graduates and promised to send us some freebies. And a couple of weeks back some pre-release copies of Pure turned up. And I've been playing with them. However, even though I got to play for free (we'll give away the games at the next student event we hold) I still rather like the game.