Does getting older change what you play?

This is a response to a great thread on the PCG forum board. Link is at the bottom. Well worth a read.

I've considered this question before. Not only are we older but, as the OP says, we have less time to dedicate to games. I think that games used to 'get away' with a lot more in terms of poor gameplay. That is, pixel-perfect jumps, or no saves or simply the same levels rehashed.



Gamers these days are now more discerning. I don't think that we, or at least those who visit this forum, will take games that don't have an excellent tutorial, or simply take too long to get us into the action element.

For example, Sins of a Solar Empire has a terrible tutorial. It doesn't seem to realise that you only understand how to use the various mechanics of the game when they become necessary. Shogun 2's tutorial (albeit I've played all the TWs since the original) is much better: you use the game's mechanics as and when they become necessary, and the game seamlessly 'starts' when the tutorial ends. However, Sins is one game where I gave a few hours over a few games (plus looking at the forum and asking a colleague's son for advice) until I could actually play it competitively.

I think that there is, ultimately, a great thing in the experience of play. Sandbox games are a superb example of this. However, most evenings recently, coming to the end of term, all I'm loading up is Batman AA and kicking the hell out of a load of goons using two mouse buttons. Immense game! I should also begin to check out Megazell's list a bit more, too...


http://www.pcgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10688

Read more »

Project Zomboid - An Impression

Ever since I picked up a PC (and some time) about two years ago, I have almost become used to the graphics post-HL2. Yes, I love how Left 4 Dead and the like look superb. Sometimes I still load Oblivion simply to walk the grounds. However, there is something in the old-school isometric graphics of a game like Project Zomboid that appeals.



PZ, for those who have not yet heard, is Sims with Zombies. The focus is on maintaining the moods, whims and sanity of your characters as much as the food in their bellies. At least, that is the idea. It is being developed by, as far as I can gather, 4 folk who live in an apartment in Cleveland (and whose address is actually available when you purchase the game!)

Furthermore, the game itself is in a pre-Alpha stage; that is, people are purchasing a game that, like Minecraft, is being developed on the speculative funds of other people. Doing so is a risk. And yet it does foster a community of gamers (and developers) that is riding on the back of the recent success of The Walking Dead series (that is superior to the comics, I have found.)

Any literature works in provoking an emotional response as well as an intellectual one. Isometric graphics and sandbox games appeal to both of these. The demo itself didn't really have much in the way of interaction (the wife of the main character simply doesn't speak or eat or drink or even die after two days of the tutorial.) Therefore, it remains to be seen how the

There has been some pretty fruity PR from the developers. However, they aren't marketers, but rather game-makers. Having posted a promised update in days, they have seemed to have come unstuck in relying upon third-party developers. While, for me, this is simply par for the course, it is apparent (from their PR) that they have received some rather aggressive comments (which, again, is par for the course from the anonymity of the internet.)

What makes this stand out for me, though, is how they have responded.

A few posts make it clear that they are hurt by such comments (to put it likely). While such comments are indeed hurtful at best, and damaging at worst, they are to be expected when you have 'the internet' convening on a forum board. Moreover, when those people are paying (albeit the small sum of £5) for a product, the marketing should be considered. That is, having any kind of update is better than nothing.

Despite the apparent angst of the developers, the comments seem, to me, to be entirely positive and supporters of the developers. It is true, though, that there are other ways to handle the dark forces of anger and ridicule - my job requires me to deal with those human inclinations a regular basis.

So what does all this mean? That the journey to make this game is something that I think is part of the pioneering digital art that is gaming, and that it is something that even four folk with no apparent prior experience in marketing a game as widely as PZ will be can give it a go with what seems to be no little success.

If the game delivers even a fraction of the NPC interaction promised, it'll be worthwhile gaming experience. I doubt the multiplayer would work, as PC multiplayer seems broken on almost every indie game I've ever played (and that's on those that have a far heftier budget.)

Read more »

PES 2011 Review

At university I used to work in the retail store Game ( as I may have mentioned before.) As a result of this I was deeply suspicious about the value of purchasing any PC games from high-street retail. Although I might be supportive of local stores over internet shopping, PC games are universally cheaper, sometimes by 25% of the actual price, than retail. I think that's what made my purchase of PES 2011 for a tenner somewhat surprising.



Having previously reviewed PES 2009 as one of the best examples of the balance between realism and 'arcadeness' (I never did find a suitable noun...) I was happy to take PES 2011 as I found it.

This was just as well.

My first game was a bore draw between Spain and Serbia. There were some goals in the next few games as I took my beloved Wolves through the first few fixtures of the Master League. Unfortunately, they were all against me. This didn't bode well. However, if being a teachergamer has taught me anything, it has taught me some sense of perseverance. This side of things, two weeks later, I am happily into the mindset of the game and winning games freely.

The game itself is much slower-paced. PES games have been characterised by team-play, but it was still possible to pass cleanly by simply pushing towards the opponents goal and hitting short pass at the precise time. Those times are no more. It took my a fair time to get used to defenders passing the ball out of play (Vidic!) or passes trickling to my strikers. Perhaps this is a result of me having never attempted to master the manual pass button in the previous PES incarnations. As a result, once you get your head used to the need to face in precisely the direction you wish to pass, you find through passes are deadlier than ever.

This makes the game sit firmly on the side of realism. This is also reflected in the other functions of the game. The Master League has, at last, implemented a rudimentary value system where you deal in your chosen currency. It hasn't quite realised that international players cost a little more than £500,000, but I'm sure the designers are saving that till later. What they have developed accurately is a calendar that reflects the footballing season with weeks numbers having been replaced by months, and transfer windows lying over existing football fixtures. The characteristic rhythms of the season (the hopeful summer fixtures, the difficult Xmas list, and the dour march grind) are now reflected. Well done developers!

Another addition is the ability to edit your stadiums. Pleasingly, Molineux stadium has been included in the smoke patch (albeit with one filled in corner.) In the fantasy world of PES football though, only 17,000 people ever fill it, even when playing the big four. This has so far resulted in some desperately empty looking games. However, I hope that winning some trophies (or a patch) might change this.

The Become a Legend mode is much better thanks to giving your player some decent starting talent. Despite being England's best player in PES 2009, my player in that game developed at a hideous crawl. Playing 5 minute matches meant that I rarely scored, and 10 minute matches took something near 10 hours to finish a season. Your statistics also adjust depending on where you changed positions on the pitch, so my brother can no longer use his expertise with Roberto Carlos as a striker (with the best speed and shooting on PES 1990something.)

Despite these improvements, the rating system of players is hideously broken. This is what the game seems to do:

5.5 = rubbish to average game. I haven't seen a score less than this.
6.0 = An average game. For a goal-keeper, this means having saved 12 shots.
6.5 = Good game in which the player may have scored. Top score for a goal-keeper
7.0 = A great game, often consisting of a goal and/or assist. Reasonably rare for a defender or defensive midfielder.
7.5 = An outstanding game where a striker or a midfielder has scored several goals, or at least the winning one. Every few games or so a player will attain this score.
8.0 = The games '10 out of 10.' Scores several goals or dominates the game.

As this rating system seems to involve a scale of five with a 'perfect' rating, it seems to make sense for a mod (or a perceptive developer) to change the rating system to something that makes more sense. Still, in the words of a David Mitchellesque student, I sure that the reasons behind the choice will all become clear in time...

The game's change in speed and control does have the added benefit of making you feel like you have truly meant to score the goals you do. A few nights ago (as I rarely play more than one match an evening) I needed to score to equalise against the mighty Fulham. In the last two minutes, the ball broke to my defender who passed strong towards Guitereez (the only decent striker) who played a one-two (essential in this game) with Minanda, the classic aged playmaker of the Master League fame. Minanda had to run away from his maker (and the goal) in his attempt to receive the pass. I saw that my striker was about the pass beyond the high-line of Fulham. Audaciously, without looking, I saw Minanda loft a perfect pass that was controlled first with a keen turn away from the onrushing defender by my Spanish journeyman. As the goal-keeper and three defenders rushed to crunch Guitereez (sic) he ease the ball onto his right foot before stroking it into the right corner.

In PES 2009, this would have been completed by pushing the d-pad in the horizontal direction of the goal. In PES 2011, I had to weigh the pass, and push in the diagonal direction at a precise moment.

It is small changes like this that make this a distinctive game. It is a worthy edition to the PES series, and plays differently too. Frustrating as hell initially, and in ever need of the outstanding Smoke Patch, it rewards the perseverance of any teachergamer willing to give it some time.

Read more »

Shogun 2 Review

The original Shogun, which I fondly reviewed, was my first game on my first personal PC back when I was at university. Yes, I had an Amiga and Championship Manager and the like, but Shogun was my first experience of a game that pushed up the bar of my expectations beyond the bunny-hopping graphics of the Amiga. Having played, on and off, the entire Total War series, I was seriously looking forward to this incarnation. And yet I was dismayed.



You may, like me, have installed the demo expecting great things. A lack of graphic options was naff. Four frames per second was unplayable. The damn game simply did not work. And the smoothness of MTW2 made it a better game.

Resolved to give Shogun 2 a miss, I ignored it for several months. Then browsing the PCGamer forums, I saw that it had been reduced on amazon to a mere £15. Buying it on a whim, I revealed my bargain to the community only to commit forum seppuku by hearing that, the same day, it had been reduced to £12. I never did like the economy aspects of such games.

Still, purchasing it a while later had the advantage of a working patch that made the game actually work. My experience with CoD Black Ops meant that I was already prepared to install the game from the disks (unless you fancy a 17gig bandwith hit.) The patch itself was at least 3 gig.

When the game finally loaded my patience was well-rewarded. The opening movie is one that I have yet to skip; it is incredibly well-made and evokes the spirit of game every time I have seen it (so far.) And the game itself plays very differently to previous issues of the TW series.

For a start, the unit tweaks make the game more of a tactical masterclass. Archers in previous incarnation can exhaust their ammunition and decimate an average unit from, say, 60 to 20 or so. In this version, even the weakest archers be expected to rout enemy units with half their ammunition. A welcome change. In addition, cavalry truly feel powerful. In the original Shogun, I never took heavy cavalry. They simply weren’t as useful as their Yari counterparts. In Shogun 2, however, a unit of heavy cavalry can decimate a peasant archer unit entirely within 10-15 seconds. This is the Mongol expansion all over again. Brilliant!

The campaign mode always see me play as the green Shimazu, rolling across the entirety of the campaign map from left to right. I initially set the game to its default options which, unfortunately, left me with incredibly small units sizes (15 in a cavalry units rather than 60, for example.) However, I needn’t have worried on my first play through. Many of the battles are sieges. Yet siege battles, although irksome to me, play very differently as all students can scale any wall. A pleasing addition.

The final aspect of the game which makes this a vastly improved TW game is the collision detection. Having copious played MTW2, I am well-used to hitting the ‘r’ key to ensure my damn army actually runs to where its meant to, I am yet to get used to that collision detection actually works in Shogun 2. While in MTW2 I simply accepted that soldiers would charge to within feet of the enemy before stopping, Shogun has happily solved this problem.

That is, in itself, a rather nice metaphor upon which to end this impressionistic review. This game is a step forward by the best developer in the RTS business over the past ten years. For producing a game that I can pick up and play midweek, I thank them. It’s just a shame that the option screen contains so much animation that it sometimes burns out my graphics card...

Read more »