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’!