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’!

From bedroom game development to multi-media Bar and club. Andrew Davidson’s life has been anything but boring....?

Worms. A creature many wouldn’t associate with success but one that has become completely synonymous with one mans career. Andrew Davidson’s life has not followed convention. From creating video games at school to releasing one of the most successful British born games ever, to finally opening his I Bar. Andrew is a person not short of groundbreaking ideas.

I’m talking to Andrew in his latest brainchild. The I Bar located in Bournemouth his hometown. Opened this summer, the bar can boast many technical feats from web browsing to allowing customers to connect their phones to the bar via Bluetooth. Andrew himself is part of a new breed; he is the quintessential of ‘geek chic.’ Tall, well kept, he has the air of the IT crowd. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt with an artistically styled wolf, he is unassuming in the crowd of regulars which drink and occasionally play on their I macs around us.

At 34 Andrew’s career has already taken in unimaginable heights. Catching the tail end of the home-grown bedroom developers scene in the 1980’s, Andrew spent much of his youth reverse engineering computers. “I used to take apart calculators to see what I could make them do.” Worms was game he developed very much for himself and his friends. As a premise, the idea behind Worms is where worm shaped characters attempt to eliminate each other in time-based attacks, using an assortment of amusing weapons on randomly created 2-D maps. Working and playing it at school was often frowned upon, “My teacher banned us from playing it!”

Shunning university, for a lack of creative courses, Andrew started work. “I got a job working in a game shop for £50 a week, cash in hand.” Using the customers to further refine Worms, “I saw a kid playing my game and then his Dad came over and also played, so I knew it had mass market appeal,” he was able tighten the gameplay to chess levels of complexity. When finally confident he showed the game at a convention to British game developers. “I closed the shop for one day. I put up a sign ‘Sick!’ I showed it to Team 17 and within 5 minuets they said they wanted to distribute it!”

In 1994, Worms was finally released and became a huge commercial success. It’s a game, which has appeared, on every machine produced since, and its timeless gameplay and humour has been a hit with young and old.

Having had such a huge achievement at an early age has not dampened Andrews’s appetite for success. In a world where technology moves at lightning fast speeds consumers are demanding more from their town centres, coffee houses and bars. Andrew spied a gap in the market. The I Bar specialises with the sort of multi-media interaction that would seem more at home on a web site. Whilst providing all the drinks you would expect from a trendy bar, the I Bar also provides you with Internet access and WiFi for web browsing.

The I Bar’s atmosphere is relaxed and clean, the tables and chairs inoffensive in their simplicity. Downstairs sports an impressive screen behind a modest stage, providing an excellent platform for bands, DJ’s and VJ’s (Visual Jockeys) to perform. The bar itself contains a lot of technology which required Andrew to prepare before attempting to install it. “We had it all wired up in my flat. We didn’t know it was going to work!”

Music, a key factor in any night out, is completely under control of the customers. Andrew points out the flat screen TV. It provides a touch screen input to a dedicated duke box and LCD screens around bar display the track information. “How many times that I’ve been out and wondered what song is playing.” The bar is quickly becoming the technophile’s perfect choice.

Andrew is pleased with the success he has had, both making games and with the I Bar. “We’re already planning ‘Phase Two.” For a person such as Andrew, Worms and now the I Bar are examples of creativity with an edge. Not bad for a kid who played games in school.

You can find the I bar on Holdenhurst Road. For more information check out www.myspace.com/ibar

X360 Games Editor Simon Miller speaks........

Walking into Imagine Publishing house in Bournemouth, I’m greeted with a life size replica of Lara Croft and a huge hulking Big Daddy that looms menacingly over the waiting room couch. Based in the heart of Bournemouth in a seemingly bland looking building, IP release a number of specialist magazines, ranging from photography to computers. Along the walls are references to Star Wars, the manager’s office affectionately referred to as the Death Star. I’m here today to talk to one of the magazines which covers a niche, but increasingly popular market.

Simon Miller smiles holding out his hand to me. He is dressed causally, as are many of the people walking around the offices, and would not look out of place among many of Bournemouth’s student population. Simon works as a Games Editor for X360 magazine and is keen to point out how much he actually enjoys his job.
“I’ve been this year alone; Canada, Italy and Holland……your coming to work everyday and its fun. I don’t want to use the word perfect. There’s joys and there’s frustrations and everything, but it’s ten times better than working in HSBC.”
Simon is in the very fortunate situation of working in a field that also happens to one of his personal interests. Working on a Video Game magazine has become the dream for many a young man.
“I get my hobby done during the day, and get paid for doing it! And then I can go and do something else.”

At 23 Simon is reporting on one of Britain’s biggest and fastest growing industries. The government has recently commissioned an independent review into video games and the internet, by Dr Tanya Byron. Simon is quick to come to their defence.
“…they’re not this terrifying new wave of technology…..it’s the same thing with the way people thought of film in the 60’s…..”
One area in particular in which the government’s review wishes to look, is the conduct of people socially in virtual domains. Xbox Live, the virtual community Simon spends the majority of his time is notoriously homophobic and racist.
“You can never regulate that. The only thing you can do is hope the developers implement a function where you can mute people.” Something already in place, but rarely utilised. “That’s more of a window into what the world is like rather than Xbox Live.”

The virtual domain is one where Simon is very active. In an industry as fast moving and forward looking as video games, online communities are vital links in communication and one where X360 and Simon are very active.
“My big thing about all magazines is that the staff writer or writers and the readers should be as close as possible….we’re all opinionated guys, but at the same time its all about making it fun.” Find a job you love, and never work a day in your life.