BeefJack: Game of the Year!

It seems I was a little distracted yesterday with the release of The Sound of Money to notice that over on BeefJack two other bits of my work went online.

First off is the Game of the Year article for The Walking Dead. Unlike all the other games in the GOTY series, this one had four of us argue for it, so I think it's safe to say its the winner. Have a read why Joannes, Ben, Sean and myself think Telltale's point and click was the most important game of 2012.

Also there's the final podcast of the year where, alongside Anthony and Danny, we talk about three of the biggest videogame stories of the last twelve months as well as more arguments for our Game of the Year picks (though mine's pretty much "Go listen to The Walking Dead special").

The Sound of Money

It's been a long time coming but my first short story, The Sound of Money, is finally available for anyone to download. Seriously, anyone, I'm giving this thing away.

See!

I'm in a really odd place right now. But this is one of a few surprises I intend to unleash over the next few days. I'm thinking the next will likely be after New Year now though. But what are you doing here reading this? There's a free book to go claim.

Assassin's Creed III addendum

A month or so ago I reviewed Assassin's Creed III for BeefJack, and I quite liked it. However, the way deadlines work and games the size of ACIII, you don't always get to complete the full game. You simply bomb through as much content as possible and get a decent feel for it.

After my review was done I went off to play Halo 4 (obviously), Need for Speed: Most Wanted and quite a few other games. I've now finally returned to ACIII to finish it up, and I'm starting to think that I got a bit too excited originally. The fact Assassin's Creed had recaptured the magic blinded me a little.

BeefJack: Primordia Review

Remember when I said that when I didn't review Baldur's Gate I got given something else? (It's right below this post, it's not hard to miss) That something else was Primordia. A point and click adventure game from Wadjet Eye and Wormwood.

Primordia review

This was a very good turn up for the books. The game was awesome. Now go read the review to find out why.

At this stage I can't praise Wadjet Eye enough. I played Gemini Rue earlier this year and loved it. I also have Resonance sitting in my Steam collection after buying it during a Steam Sale, but haven't had the time to get round to it. After the two I have played I think I might be working my way through the entire collection. Eventually.

BeefJack: Baldur's Gate Interview

Erm... well it's been awhile since I've been here. I've had to get a part time job for some extra monies in. As such I've been prepping a big surprise, and fulfilling my BeefJack duties. Speaking of which, here's an interview with Overhaul Games' Trent Oster all about their Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Interview

Baldur's Gate is the game responsible for getting me into RPGs. I loved it way back when, and have been pining for this new edition since it was announced. I was also meant to be reviewing it, but I was one of the few that got struck by its launch problems, so I had to pass it on. Instead I ended up with another game, which was a good thing, as you'll find out very soon.

BeefJack: Assassin's Creed III review

After Revelations my love for the Assassin's Creed franchise was seriously waning. The reveal of the American Revolution setting and wandering around the wilderness had me back in. Thanks to BeefJack I got my hands on a review copy, and I have to say Ubisoft have really brought it back from the edge.

Assassin's Creed III review

All Hallow's Eve: Alan Wake

It's Halloween which means it's time to play scary games. Rather than do a relay like a few years ago, I decided to take a stab at a new game. Well, new game for me anyway. Alan Wake. This was a bit of an odd one for me. I'd originally been excited, the web series Bright Falls put me off, then the American Nightmare XBLA game got me interested again. I picked it up cheap near the start of the year but was waiting for it to get dark in the evenings so I could play it properly. Halloween seemed like the perfect excuse, plus it helped with the BeefJack podcast.

I do like it. The setting, the mystery and the drama are all played brilliantly. It is a decent enough horror game too, BUT it ruins its own horror.

BeefJack: Of Orcs and Men review

Another review of mine is up over at BeefJack. This time it's Of Orcs and Men, a game I'd barely heard of when I was asked to review it. That should have been my first sign. It wasn't, instead I watched a trailer and was mildly hopeful. As Jamie Donnelly put it "It's either going to be surprisingly good or amazingly shit." Unfortunately, I don't think it was either.

My word count was pretty tight and there were a few things I didn't have room to moan about, such as the environments. They weren't too bad, serviceable anyway, and if the team had just used them for one level you'd probably never be bothered. Instead they reuse them out for a good three of four levels in a row and by the end of it you're so bored of looking at the same brown textures it is untrue. However, that is a minor point compared to what I do mention in the review.

BeefJack: Need for Speed: Most Wanted Preview

I say it several times in the preview itself but Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was an amazing game. I loved that game, and still play it. When it was announced that Criterion were making another Need for Speed I was extremely happy. So happy that BeefJack got me to preview it. Unfortunately, "It's Criterion making another Need for Speed" isn't enough so this is my more thought out response.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Preview

The video's in there as I felt that alone was enough reason to play that. Although the text that made that obvious got cut.

BeefJack: 7 reasons why 007 Legends won’t be legendary

Activision release 007 Legends next week. I, for one, am not fussed at all. James Bond games are a little hit and miss at the best of times and there's just so much looking like it's going to be a bit mediocre that I just couldn't keep quiet about it.

7 reasons why 007 Legends won’t be legendary

I was actually worried that this version was a little too fanboy-ish. My editor felt otherwise though. However, I'd already started restructuring the article. Bonus Blog Paragraph time. I envisioned a rewording of number six and a deeper look into the videogame industries obsession with Goldeneye.

Goldeneye isn't in 007 Legends, and for that we should be thankful. Rare's game blew players away, it was the perfect Bond game, and it has never been surpassed. Unfortunately, that's something game publishers seem to have got stuck on. A few of the Bond games that have come out in the past fifteen years have been trying to be 'the new Goldeneye' and these are always the ones that stumble the hardest. They even gave up trying to tie games into the films at one point and gave us a spin-off, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, that made no sense and barely featured 007. There was also the remake that swapped Brosnan for Craig in the Bond role. 007 Legends looks like another Bond game that's fallen into the 'Goldeneye trap'.

BeefJack: Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel preview

I've done another preview for BeefJack, this time in the form of Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel. A game that interests me mainly because of who's making it. Which is pretty much how I approached this entire preview. I thought it would be a bit of a struggle, and my entire first take was all wrong. But once I found a decent angle I was away. Ended up being quite an easy one.

What was my angle? Go find out!

Transfomers: From Cybertron's Fall to Prime

I am a huge Transformers nerd. It's one of my Big 4 childhood franchises, though I do tend to drift away from it. But every now and again something comes along that has me looking back to see what's on offer. Once again it's High Moon Studios that have got me to return to the war between the Autobots and Decepticons with Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

Fall is awesome! That's quite an opening statement but I feel quite safe saying it. Its predecessor, War on Cybertron, was pretty damn good but something was slightly lacking. Looking back, while the three player co-op was fun it severely hamstrung the game at the same time. No robot stood apart from the rest, they all felt like one homogeneous whole. It's understandable, the person playing Bumblebee has to be just as capable as the one playing Optimus Prime, despite all evidence to the contrary.

BeefJack: The Podcast!

After being the man behind the GeekGasms.org podcast for just over a year, when we started talking about a possible BeefJack one I was all over it. Well today sees our first official podcast go live, and I show off the art of seamless transitions.

Go listen to Lewis Denby, Simon Williams and my "northern underwater robot" voice. Cheers for that Jamie.

Hopefully many more to come.

BeefJack: Inquisitor review

After making a lot of noise about the Baldur's Gate re-release our reviews editor cottoned onto the fact that I have a bit of a soft spot for the 90s style iosmetric RPGs so he offered me Inquisitor. A Czech game that may be just three years old but it feels like it could be thirteen. That's a good thing by the way.

Inquisitor review

Bet you can't guess what my next review is going to be?

Bourne Legacy. Bourne to be mild

I've been a huge fan of the Bourne series since the first film arrived. When news of a fourth film broke I wasn't too offended, even when they started thinking of using a different agent as Matt Damon wasn't keen on returning. Jeremy Renner's casting was a different story, but that was mostly because he'd also just agreed to do Mission Impossible with the potential of taking that over. Does he really need two spy franchises?

Anyway the first three makes a great trilogy, but I saw no reason why they couldn't keep going with the right story. Bourne Legacy has all the trademarks of being that story, but it doesn't have enough panache to pull it off.

BeefJack: A look back at Broken Sword

I'm a pretty big Broken Sword fan, so when news of the Kickstarter arrived I had an afternoon of going slightly crazy as I jumped about with glee. Then I spent the weekend playing the Director's Cut of the first game and watching the second game of YouTube.

Okay that may sound odd, my original plan was to play my old copy of The Smoking Mirror, but since I played it sometime in the 90s the CD has managed to wipe itself. That seriously bummed me out Saturday morning.

After that I wrote this: A look back at Broken Sword.

I kinda skim over the fourth game but SHHH I've not actually played it. I know I know, it's unforgivable. When it came out one of my flatmates bought it, so I planned on borrowing his, never got round to it. However, the pledge I gave to the kickstarter is for a free game at GOG.com so The Angel of Death is finally going to get tangled.

Top 20 Games of all time 2012 Edition

Or: My vote for BeefJack's Top 100 games.

Every year BeefJack put together a list of Top 100 games. This list is compiled by all contributors for the site listing their Top 20. It's sorted by some mystical mumbo jumbo by Jamie Donnelly and somehow we end up with 100 of them.

So what was my own list? I'm glad you asked:

20. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Criterion)
19. Metroid Prime
18. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
17 Left 4 Dead 2
16. Halo 3: ODST
15. GTA San Andreas
14. Red Dead Redemption
13. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
12. Metal Gear Solid
11. Batman: Arkham Asylum
10. Assassin's Creed 2
9. Resident Evil 2
8. Mass Effect 2
7. Halo: Combat Evolved
6. Half-Life 2
5. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
3. Planescape: Torment
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
1. Star Wars: Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight


Now I already can see one or two changes I'd make since writing that. I had a hard time deciding on which GTA to include, and I'm still not convinced I chose the right one. I'm thinking maybe it should have been Half-Life 1 instead of 2 and should Metroid Prime really be there? If so what would what replace it?

As for the final list itself, well I'm ashamed of my colleagues that Jedi Academy was the Jedi Knight game chosen. I could have understood it being Jedi Outcast, but Academy is the worst of the franchise. Why Academy?

What about the Top 10, well it's dominated by Valve but I don't see much problem with it. It please me that Deus Ex: Human Revolution charted so highly. I wasn't sure if that was just me that held it in such high regard. Plus its daddy is there too, a game I've yet to play (though do finally own thanks to a Steam sale).

BeefJack: Forget Hollywood

While last week's comic piece may have been the article I was meant to write, this one I'm far more proud of. It actually started life as a joke idea for the now forgotten List with Twist feature, but between the Sleeping Dogs quote and some wonderful editorial advice from Mr Jamie Donnelly it became so much more.

Without further ado I give you:

Forget Hollywood

BeefJack: How other superhero games can replicate Arkham City’s success

or What can other Superheroes learn Arkham City and Rise above the Dark Knight?

Yeah that was my title, I love it but it was way too long.

But here it is. The feature I may have been born to write.

Bonus blog paragraph. It was cut because it was really the same argument as the bit about Superman but from a slightly different angle.

Another example is Green Lantern who is only limited by his imagination, which works brilliantly in comics or in movies (his powers, not the movie itself you understand, that was tripe). In a game that is next to impossible to pull off though, he's limited to the objects the developers give him. In a team up game that is going be massively limited, but give a studio the time and resources to create a variety of animations and context sensitive creations and you're getting close to a cool sound Green Lantern game.

Back to the Singularity

I always meant to play Singularity. I remember seeing the trailer at one E3 and thinking “Yes! I want to play that!” Especially with it being Raven Software being behind it. I loved their early FPS but had forgotten about them in the deluge of X-Men games they did post Jedi Academy. Somehow though I lost track of it. It came out and I just never got round to it. When GAME had its financial woes near the start of the year I finally managed to get hold of a copy.

Singularity is one of those first person shooters that wears its Half-Life 2 and BioShock influences clearly on its sleeve. It even has a crazy device that takes inspiration from the gravity gun and bits of the story slowly unfolding by sound recordings scattered about the island. There's even a twist just like the “Would you kindly” that doesn't quite work as well. It wasn't helped that I'd guessed it already either.

Gemini Rue

Well I said I was going to, and having finished Gemini Rue, it was everything years of anticipation had built up Beneath a Steel Sky to be. It's sci-fi noir at it's finest. There's a grizzled cop, a shit ton of rain and criminals running the show. The only thing missing is the femme fatale.

I'm can't be bothered going into a full blown review, but it is a truly amazing adventure game, and noir as hell.  It was great to see a point and click adventure not relying on humour. I highly recommend you try it, but I'm going to the pub.

Whiskey, straight. And leave the bottle.

Beneath a Steel Sky

Beneath a Steel Sky was one of those games that I've meant to play since I was a kid. From the age of twelve or something. This past weekend I was in a bit of a retro gaming mood and GOG.com have it available for free, seemed like a perfect time to address that nearly twenty year old hole. Especially after finding out that Dave Gibbons worked on it and that he'll soon teaming up with Revolution for a new game.

Despite my urge to play Beneath a Steel Sky, I didn't actually know much about it. Just that it's an adventure game set in a dystopian future, quite a bit cyberpunk, you're on the run and the main character is a guy in a black trenchcoat, of course. All true, but that little knowledge and the title formed a succinct image in my head. I dreamed of a gritty, noir, almost Blade Runner-like adventure. Well that couldn't have been more wrong.

BeefJack: Penny Arcade 3 Review

My latest review is up at BeefJack. Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3. Apart from the ridiculously long title what is there to say? Well that's what the review's for.

The blog only behind the scenes gumf for this one was that I actually played the game so much over the weekend I forgot half what I had to write. Luckily Mr Pickard hadn't published it when I picked it up again yesterday and reminded myself of them. I popped back in and review was improved no end.

Splinter Cell isn't about stealth?

I'm starting to get quite angry about everyone going on about how Splinter Cell: Blacklist has lost the stealth the series is renowned for. Is this simply because of the E3 demo? But it's an E3 demo, its always going to be big and loud. While it does show Sam Fisher running out into the middle of the bad guys guns ablazing. that's not all it offers. Just before Mr Fisher gets a little gun-happy he's quietly sneaking along the outskirts of the enemy camp, opens up the back of tent with a knife and takes out the first guard without a single person noticing. THEN he jumps out and murders four people in the blink of an eye, but it's an active choice of the player rather than the only move available to him.

Later on Sam runs up a wall and kills a guard on the balcony above, now this is pure Conviction style stealth, but whoever is playing this demo is going for flashy in order to please the audience. Instead of being careful with the body he drops it straight into water directly in the path of the other enemies and shit kicks off. It was immediately apparent that this was a speed-run and I could see how to do it better if he just paused for a second or two, but that's not the nature of standing on stage in front of the large crowd demonstrating a game.

BeefJack: Prototype 2 Review

Yes, a month ago I made the glorious statement that after previewing the game I was quite happy to wait until Prototype 2 went down in price before picking it up. That was all before the lovely people at BeefJack gave me a copy to review. I fairly enjoyed it, way more then I expected to after previewing it. That said I do bemoan the fact they changed the lead, Heller is a complete prick, even Mercer was more fun to play than this guy.

To sum up here's my original conclusion: Prototype 2 is the gaming equivalent to superhero summer blockbuster, dumb as a bag of hammers but you'll have a hell of a lot of fun at the same time.

Oh and this is my first ever review :D

The Problems with Downloadable Content

Downloadable content and the perceived perceptions of it are generating quite a lot of press at the moment, especially those that are ready to be downloaded the first day of a game's release. First BioWare caused uproar by daring to have a Mass Effect 3 squad member that fully integrated into the game, then Capcom offered twelve characters for Street Fighter x Tekken that were already on the disk.

For some gamers these are basically the same thing. “We're having to pay for something we should have gotten for free!” is the comment most seen in news stories. As far as I'm concerned they are polar opposites.

BeefJack: Prototype 2 Preview

Another article published over at BeefJack, a Prototype 2 preview. I really loved the first Prototype, and have been looking hoping for a second one as soon as the credits rolled. Unfortunately, doing this preview has put me off the sequel a little. I was bemoaning the fact I couldn't pick it up on release, now picking it up cheap a few months down the line doesn't seem like that bad a thing.

Mass Effect 3's ending and my problems with it

Now that I know Mass Effect 3's ending I've been playing catch up on all the bitching about it. Ignoring the over-the-top petitions and calls to boycott BioWare FOREVER, some of these people kinda have a point. This is about to become spoiler central. You have been warned.

I have nothing against downer endings. My periphery glance at the bitching before I'd seen it myself convinced me it was just a bunch of gamers that couldn't handle everything not going their way. Shepard dies. Big whoop. Grow up. But the lack of choice? The feeling that most of your decisions don't effect the end of the game? Now there's a point I have to agree with.

BeefJack: List with a Twist

Three articles in two weekends. This one was a lot of fun to research.

5 80s action movies reimagined as FPS games

No Stallone sort of bugs me, I really wanted to include Cobra but couldn't find it anywhere. Rambo 2 and 3 certainly fit the bill but by the time I'd admitted defeat on Cobra I'd already written the rest. If I'd got chance to do it I'd probably take Dirty Harry out. Not because of its seventies origins, the article's too light hearted to worry about that, but during the research I found out that there was nearly an open-world game based on the first movie. There's currently a Facebook campaign to try and revive it.

Also found out some other crazy facts:
The Russians did a remake of Commando
Steven Seagal started his film career as a martial arts stunt coordinator on Never Say Never Again and A View to a Kill.

Games for a Hangover: Red Dead Redemption

It appears it's the weekend of me on BeefJack. Another article of mine is up, part of our regular feature Games for a Hangover. My choice: Red Dead Redemption.

BeefJack: Why Mass Effect fans feel alienated

Another of my articles is up on BeefJack. Changing the world: Why Mass Effect fans feel alienated. All about how Bioware blundered with the latest Mass Effect book. Really proud of this one, original version was written last week when I was quite outraged at the whole affair. Monday was spent IMing with the editor, Lewis Denby, and made it ten times better.

Struggled for ages with the title though. That's not even mine. The one I left it with was "Mass Effect Deception: How to Lose Fans and Alienate Gamers" Lewis obviously wasn't keen on my reference.

The Darkness: From page to polygon

Over at BeefJack my latest feature has gone up, The Darkness: From page to polygon. This one was a lot of fun, not often you get to combine two of my favourite things and get it published. I even got to drag out my old Darkness comics out and read of some good 90's comics. My collection was a lot fuller than I remember, I always thought my Darkness collection was patchy at best, apparently not.

Stuff that didn't belong in that article was how much of Ennis is in the first few issues, a writer I'd never really sampled until after my Top Cow phase. And the art, wow I'd forgotten how exploitative the 90s was with women, practically every female present looked like they're about to go do a shift at the local gentlemans club.

Chuck vs. The End

So that's it. Chuck has finally finished. In some ways I'm sad, in others not so much. The first two seasons were tremendous telly, and this last season has been pretty damn special too. At least it got to end properly. Part of the problem has been the writers treating each half season as their last, only to receive a last minute reprieve from the networks. This wasn't more obvious than the first half of Season 3, which ended beautifully, only for them to get a further six episodes and the staff seemed to scramble for a suitable storyline.

Its probably why season 5 has been so good, for once they actually knew this was the end and it was time to draw a line under it all.

Mass Effect 3 Unlocks AKA Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo

The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo, yes I only played it because of the Mass Effect 3 items, but that's what forms the majority of this story.

First time I played it I was vaguely impressed. It was sort of a more serious Fable, the world seemed interesting for a rather standard fantasy fare, but then as I was speaking to the first Fateweaver conversations just disappeared with a lovely bug. However, there was a prize at the end of the road so I pushed on, ran across the play area to see as much of the main quest as I could to see if it grabbed me. It sort of did. But then it happened. It crashed. One of those big ones that freezes the entire Xbox and the only way around it is the power button.

Any other game would have gotten a “Well that's buggy as week old shit” and forgotten, but there was a Mass Effect unlock waiting at the other side. A few days later I had another pop. I had a few hours before I had to head out and figured I had plenty of time to fit in the 45 minutes needed. This was when I realised just how amazing a demo the game was. First I didn't have to redo the tutorial the game just went “Shall I skip that part since you've done it already”, which I thought was going to be the most painful of the replay. That done I set off handling the quests I'd blatantly ignored previously and I was in for another shock. The disappearing conversations were nowhere to be found, and I'd never see them again.

SOPA and PIPA

It's funny. If this had happened a year ago I pretty much would have been on the outskirts of this debate saying something like "I hope the Americans realise" and being nicely surprised at the blackouts conducted around the internet on Wednesday and the consquences of that action.

However, here I am now and I was part of one of those blackouts over at BeefJack. For a day we didn't post any news at all, because if SOPA went through in it's current state it is entirely possible we would get shut down for using images from games that we're trying to tell people about.

Book Title Story

Another writing group segment. This was we were given the task of creating a piece of writing using a number of book titles. I cheated a little, it was meant to be a pile with no manipulation but I skipped over a couple I didn't think I could do anything with.

The books were:

WITHOUT REMORSE by Tom Clancy

DEBT OF HONOUR by Tom Clancy

RAINBOW SIX by Tom Clancy

TEETH OF THE TIGER by Tom Clancy

INCOMPETENCE by Rob Grant

BLACK HOUSE by Stephen King and Peter Straub

DEAD EVEN by Brad Meltzer

FIRST COUNSEL by Brad Meltzer

MILLIONAIRES by Brad Meltzer

ZERO GAME by Brad Meltzer

BROKEN ANGELS by Richard Morgan

GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

ICURAS HUNT by Timothy Zahn

BETTER THAN LIFE by Grant Naylor

BACKWARDS by Grant Naylor

It was Icarus Hunt that finally gave me an angle on what to do. This is what I came up with:

We call it the ZERO GAME. We cater for MILLIONAIRES and billionaires that are looking for something a bit different, something that offers more than just the TEETH OF THE TIGER, something BETTER THAN LIFE.

This one felt different though. the vision of BROKEN ANGELS I'd had the night before wasn't exactly what I'd call GOOD OMENS for our upcoming ICARUS HUNT. But as FIRST COUNSEL I had a DEBT OF HONOUR to the organisers to see it through.

Genetically engineered prey. Scientists cook up mythical creatures in a lab. Rich people hunt them for a kill that they will be the only person in history to ever claim. Many called it genius. They had it BACKWARDS, it was INCOMPETENCE. You can't go messing with nature and expect nothing to go wrong.

I knew it wouldn't be long till until someone was hurt or DEAD, EVEN. But here at the BLACK HOUSE we gathered and as I looked across at a the artificially generated RAINBOW, SIX of them declared they were ready. We set off. I just prayed it wouldn't be me.

The Annual Games Cycle

With the release of Assassin's Creed: Revelations a lot of people are once again talking about how it shouldn't be an annual release. How Ubisoft are killing the franchise releasing games so close together. How only two games ago, Assassin's Creed 2 was hailed as a masterpiece and look how much it's fallen already.

What this has us asking is why is everyone in the industry so desperate to have annual releases? There's so many examples of it not working.

My First Proper BeefJack Article

2012 is off to a great start as my first article over at BeefJack "Why I stopped playing so many games in 2011" appears. Quite a moment for me. 

Random piece of information, I nearly spent a whole afternoon relearning Photoshop to do that first image, doing little tweaks here and there. I had to step away from it to stop myself going crazy.

And A Happy New Year

Hello Twenty Twelve. Not Two Thousand and Twelve. Embrace the future people!

So what's the plan from here on out. Well, the last few weeks of 2011 didn't really contain any major writing, in fact it was pretty atrocious. But it was the holiday season, so that's my excuse.

But, it's the new year and it's time to press on. In fact, I'm just back from lunch and I already have over a thousand words clocked up today so not a bad start. I intend to have the first draft of the novel finished by the end of January. Of course the fact I've been offered that deadline by a friend with promise of a rewards helps (though I'm ashamed to admit I need it).

After that I'm not sure. Ideally this novel should be done in the first half of the year. I've got a few ideas where I want to go, and the website needs that overhaul finishing so I can put it back up. But first draft first!