Staff writer: X360 Magazine

Just thought i'd post and say that i've been given a job writing for X360 Magazine! Check out the mag or you can contact me through the X360 website. Keep a look out for the podcast and blog too!!

Dave

Age of Conan: The Hyborian Adventures: PODCAST

New PodCast this week. Rob and Dave get a magic preview copy of Age of Conan: The Hyborian Adventures, a new mmorpg from Funcom. Take a listen and find out if this is the game to finally topple the mighty World of Warcraft?

Check out the PodCast. Just follow this LINK and click on the blue 10.2m

Enjoy

Grand Theft Idiots

I’m sure everyone is pretty sick of reading about GTA4, but feel I need to throw in my two cents for good measure.

I, like a lot of people, was up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday. Blurry eyed I stumbled to my local Game and dutifully took my place among the other tired looking shoppers, all who looked as excited as they did knackered.

We were there of course to wait for the shop to open so we could purchase our copy of GTA4 and let it take over our lives for the next couple of days. This particular Game did not open for a midnight launch so I was unfortunately stuck with the early morning.

Whilst in the queue I looked around to see who else had braved the early morning cold to secure their copy. Nosy guy that I am I couldn’t really help myself. The usual staple of lone guys in there 20’s (myself included), the odd old bloke, the group of students who had dragged there rather depressed looking girlfriends. The usual suspects.

It was only when we were allowed into the shop that I noticed ahead of me in the queue was a schoolboy, complete with school uniform. He was obviously trying in some idiotic and vain attempt to trick the staff into selling him a copy, when he was clearly under age, I scoffed at his fool hardy bravery, and fully expected him to be laughed out of the shop.

When he approached the counter his Mum was with him and it was her that was doing the purchasing. Now, this situation clearly posed a smidge of moral ambiguity. I watched in awe, as the staff member didn’t blink as he served the woman as the boy stood by, excitement growing. I felt it was my duty to say something. Was Game really going to sell this mother GTA4 when it was clearly intended for the underage boy?

Have these people learnt nothing from the whohaa that the Government has made recently with the Tanya Byron report. Clearly this mother must have known what she was buying. Otherwise she wouldn’t have had to be there. It is clearly intended for adults. It’s got 18! literally written all over it. Perhaps the fact that he was the only child in the shop would have given her some clue?

But no, she bought the game and the moron behind the counter joked; ‘I suppose this is for you?!’

I didn’t speak up as I should have and point out the idiocy of the situation. If you see this happening don’t be a coward, try to save the industry. These shops aren’t going to do it. If they don’t enforce the age ratings then we are going to run in to trouble and it’ll be Man Hunt times a million as the Government tries to enforce and limit the content of games.

Gran Turismo Prologue

Gran Tursimo has been a staple of the Sony brand for years, almost as popular as the GTA franchise. Yet the PS3 has yet to see either franchise come and fight its corner, that is until now. There can be no doubt that GT5 will be a system seller. Driving nut developer Yamauchi has been promising that GT5 will break new ground and offer players a true next-gen experience. Until that time comes however we have this teaser ‘game’ to tide us over. Make no mistake, GT Prologue is a demo, albeit one with a few more bells and whistles than your average demo.

2008 is looking to be the year that the PS3 finally starts taking off, more and more games are coming out of the woodwork and we’re really seeing what the machine is capable of. Running on the PS3 there is no doubting that Polyphony Digital has crafted one good-looking game. Running at 1080p the HD vistas presented are nothing short of breathtaking, you’ll be racing through London’s packed streets, screeching across Daytona’s sun drenched strip and careering through the mountains of Eiger Nordwand.

Cars, which have always been stunning, now look ultra-realistic. Each one is presented with loving care and an attention to detail that goes way beyond anything in the previous iterations. A new racing perspective is available, you can now race inside the car itself for the ultimate ‘Stig’ experience. This new viewpoint adds immensely to the realism of the racing, there is only one small problem.

In fact the only jarring experience, which will jolt you back to reality is the time old omission of damage. Once again the cars will merrily bounce around the tracks with glee without sustaining so much as a scratch. Which is immensely frustrating and there really is no excuse for this, other games have licensed cars and damage, so that argument doesn’t hold up anymore. The Internet however has been rife with talk of a patch via the Playstation network that will finally correct this. Which would really help the game.

GT5 Prologue offers a substantial online package. Not only does it give you a direct news feed from car manufacturers but you also get Gran Turismo TV. Here you can download videos from trailers to Top Gear episodes. At its heart though are the online races, and they do not disappoint.

Racing online is an absolute blast. It has been missing from the franchise and now finally we get the chance to face off and test our racing skills against drivers the world over. This element of the GT5 Prologue suffers from the same issue that the rest of game suffers; it is just a taste into what will be a huge online game.

What this game offers is a tantalising glimpse into what GT5 will be like. You get a taste of the HD racing, catch an idea of the tracks (you only get 6), and also try out the new online elements. And this is where the future of GT lies. If you are a fan of GT you really must pick this up. But remember, it is just a demo of what is to come.

New Assassins Creed PodCast

Assassins Creed has been out a while now. Did it live up to the hype and was it even worth the wait? What do these types of big blockbuster games mean for the future? Also, is this a new change in direction for the PS3? Is 2008 the year for Sony? With the death of HD-DVD it most certainly looks like the Playstation 3 is on the up!

For witty banter (ahem) and in depth discussion check out the podCast!

Click here and then click on the blue 38.5m link and enjoy!

Happy listening.

Game Stadium!! Bournemouth

The smell, the sweat, the sticky floors and the husk of competition, the British Arcades are often remembered with a rose tinted dollop of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia. But alas they have long since gone the way of the dodo. A few remain in bowling alleys and such places but none contain the spirit of competition that many people so fondly remember. Local arcades were a great idea, they gave gamers a place to meet face-to-face, to indulge in their hobby with like-minded people and challenge them to test their skills.

The online domain has long since taken over and the anonymity it brings means that sometimes you will inevitably run into some idiot who thinks it’s hysterical to act and talk in a racist, misogynistic and violent manner.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the arcade went through a re-birth? Rising like a phoenix out of the ashes and into an arcade for the modern era, sleek, beautiful and full of Hi-Def next-gen technology where we can all come together and celebrate our passion.

Game Stadium in Bournemouth is the ONLY independent new arcade centre to be opened and it deals exclusively with Playstation3. Its sleek look is down to the vision of owner Phil Reed. It offers the perfect conditions for competitive play for gamers of all ages. In fact Game Stadium runs its own competitions, from Call of Duty 4 to Pro Evolution Soccer, for which they offer prizes of up to £1,000.

A large number HD screens complement a private gaming booth with a gigantic HD Bravia screen. Not to mention that the whole place is connected to the net, so if you already have a Playstation3 you can use your own identity and play online, and if you don’t have one? Don’t worry, because Game Stadium will provide you with one.

This is the first of a new breed of arcade. If you are in the area and a gamer you really have no excuse, you have to check out Game Stadium and sample its gaming goodness.

Check out its website here.

Check out some pics here.

Interview with Peter Molyneux

Check out this interview with Peter Molyneux. I was really lucky to interview him on his life making games, to find out what inspires him and to have a cheeky look at Fable 2!

Click here to read it.

I can kill you with my BRAIN!

Well its taken all my childhood and some of my adult life but finally, finally, they've come up with a way to control computers, more specifically games with just our thoughts! This research in Australia, explained on the BBC news site by President of US/Australian firm Emotiv, Tan Lee, is the latest in the technology known as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG).

"It picks up electrical activity from the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer. The headset could be used to improve the realism of emotional responses of AI characters in games. If you laughed or felt happy after killing a character in a game then your virtual buddy could admonish you for being callous"

This head-set is surprisingly cheap. As the technology has grown so its cost has gone down to only $299. A small price to pay for moving things with your mind.

So here's what I'm thinking. We get a Wii controller for the Xbox 360 or the PS3, full motion sensativity. Then we get this mind reading thing (electro reading, whatever) and then we get Lucas Arts to make us a Jedi game. Use the Wii mote as a lightsaber and then we can actually have force powers and us THEM PROPERLY! Is that not awesome.


Check out the link here to the BBC news site if your interested in reading about how the science works. Click here.

Impending DOOM!

It's gonna hit the fan big time when the new GTA is finally released. Not only do we have have Tanya Byron's review on the harms of video games to children going public at a similar time, but we've also got the Presidential election in the States heating up, with hungry politicians just grabbing hold of anything to push them ahead. I'm looking at you, erm, all of you actually!

Things are probably going to get pretty messy and underneath it all will be one game. It's a good thing that game is GTA and not another rubbish publicity hounding, violence-for-the-sake -of violence-run -of-the-mill-shooter. We have a tough time ahead of us. We should start planning are arguments now ahead of time. We should be prepared to defend our favourite past time and not appear like a bunch of apethetic illiterate idiots.

It's a sad thought but were not ever going to fully get rid of this kind of stigmatism. Just ask the film industry. They've been legitimised for years as an art and they STILL get crazy right-wing nuts claiming that movies are a serious threat to the children.

Won't somebody, PLEASE, think of the children.

What ever happened to the rugby game?

I hail from the other side of the River Seven. I'm Welsh and I've spent the most part of my life living Wales. I've just watched another win by our fantastic boys in red and it got me thinking. What ever happened to the rugby game.

Now I understand that compared to football, rugby is a somewhat niece market. There’s no way a rugby game is gonna sell as well as say Fifa. But over the years there have been some really fantastic titles. If you like rugby of course, if you don’t then your out of luck because the amount of different controls that a video game version of rugby requires boarders on the ridiculous.


The one rugby game I remember playing the most was Jonah Lomu Rugby on the Playstaion one. A game where teams were so miss balanced that any game could descend into a free-for-all and where Lomu himself was pretty much indestructible!

That’s not to mention the commentary where every five minuets heard the commentator shouting “and he’s gone in there like a freight train!” Boy did that get old quick.

And yet there was something about Lomu Rugby that kept my friends and I enthralled for hours. If we were ever watching the Six Nations and half-time approached we’d fire up the PSone and have a quick game, it did after all support the multi-tap feature.

I know other rugby games have been and gone, some with really good 3D graphics but none have captured that same magic as Lomu. I wonder if there’s a next-gen title in the works, mind you we’ve a while to next world cup, does Lomu have a son?

Making games into art

Finally Rez HD has hit Xbox Live Arcade. A game not seen since the dreamy days of the Sega Dreamcast, apart from a small stint on the PS2 of course. If you have yet to experience this game, why are you reading this! Go and buy it this instance, you really won't regret it.

Mixing general, pseudo 3D, side-scrolling shooter mechanics into some sort of LSD induced freak-out the game has you shooting down computer programs sent to stop you hacking the ‘system’. You really do have to play this game to understand how awesome it is.

Extremely easy to pick up and play it offers a gaming experience like no other. You will be left scratching your head, but you’ll feel one step closer to becoming one with your machine and mother earth.

Don’t let the similarities between Jeff Minter’s Space Giraffe put you off. This game is much easy to pick up and play and is arguably a deeper gaming experience. I cannot recommend this highly enough, so waste no time picking up the definitive version in glorious high definition.

You can find it on Xbox Live Arcade or alternatively if you feel like going old school you can find copies of it on PS2 and Dreamcast on Amazon.com.

Another one bites the dust!

Well, if you've been following this whole nasty business from last year, you'll have heard that another journalist from Gamespot has decided to leave. Recently Rich Gallup left, on friendly terms and now so too has Ryan Davies. This can all be traced back to the firing of Jeff Gertsmann last year. Allegedly over a bad review he gave of Kane and Lynch. A review it quite honestly deserved. This latest departure marks the third of late and is a great blow to the Cnet website whose content has been in steady decline ever since Jeff left.

It has been rumoured that publisher Eidos, who had invested heavily in advertising on the site, were unhappy with the review and put pressure on parent company Cnet and threatned to pull the advertising fund.

While this represents a sad day for game journalists it is in fact not an uncommon practice.

Ethically I cannot agree with Cnets firing of Jeff Gertsmann, but at least journalists such as the recently departed Ryan Davis and Rich Gallup can act with thier feet sending a very clear messages to game companies and advertisers alike.

Manipulation of opinion like this will not be tolerated in any arm of the meida. That means you FOX NEWS!

A visit to Lion Head Studios? Yes please!

Tomorrow, as part of my course in magazine journalism I’m heading down to Guildford to Lion Head Studios. I’ve been asked to write a profile on somebody within the public eye. After much thought and careful consideration I decided to shoot for the stars and give Peter Molyneux a bell and see if he was available.

I never really thought he would get back to me, in fact I was already racking my brains over who to ask instead. But to my surprise I actually had an email from his PA asking when I would be able to come down.

I’m pretty excited to meet him. I’ve enjoyed his games for as long as I can remember and I’m fascinated about finding out about his work and personality.

I’m so excited that I’m going to explain to you one of the more exciting areas in Molyneuxs up and coming blockbuster Fable 2.

As you may know music has played an invaluable part in games to date, particularly Fable. For the next instalment the music is set to take on a whole new level. As expected you’ll begin your adventure nothing more than child and you’ll grow into a young adventurer. You’ll do battle with all sorts of creatures and people. As you fight the music will react to your actions and your fighting techniques. Pull off a sweet blow and you’ll hear the music flair up in recognition of your actions.

But that’s not only what will happen. As your character levels up, so do his moves and equally the music will enhance too. More complicated moves learnt will result in more instruments being used in your ‘game’ orchestra. By the time you reach the end of the game your character should be so levelled up that he’ll have a fully blown orchestra playing whenever he fights creating a music sound-scape that will be entirely unique.

Lets hope Molyneux isn’t pulling our legs.

Check out Fable 2 here!

New Gaming Website! Electirc Bandits!

Check out this new site. I'm gonna be trying to write as much as I can on it whilst trying to keep up with my studies!! Expect all the best in gaming goodness, peerless opinions and fearless debates!! Electric Bandits!!

Rob & Dave PodCast: A play through of Mass Effect. All you have to do is follow THIS link and click on the blue 17.5M! Enjoy.

Myself and Rob play through the first few chapters of Biowares epic sc-fi fantasy Mass Effect.

A bunch of coloured men!

Getting ready for our respective jobs the other morning, I lay in bed and watched while my girlfriend busied herself in front of the mirror. She has taken to listening to Chris Moyles. Giggling whilst trying to do her hair my girlfriend found it most amusing when Moyles told the story of his relationship between his Xbox 360 and girlfriend. Recognising the similarities between our own relationship, she chortled when Moyles exclaimed when forced to put his 360 on pause. His girlfriend distracting him. This got me very interested in the other aspects of my game playing habits and how it affected us as a couple, I couldn’t help but quiz her further.
I asked her if she minded me playing games? She sighed and said she didn’t, as long as she didn’t have to watch. Apparently there is nothing more boring than watching me play video-games. Personally I have always found watching someone play fairly interesting, but as my girlfriend pointed out, this is because I am already interested in them. ‘So, which games are the worst to watch, from your perspective?’ ‘Halo, that’s pretty dull. You just do the same thing over and over. It’s just a bunch of coloured men running around.’ Simplistic view aside, that’s an accurate description, particularly if you were to look at the game with fresh eyes. Even with today’s HD pin sharp graphics, its still not quite the same as watching a Hollywood film. Oh well, bring on the ‘next generation’!