Consolation Prize

It has been decided. The game of choice for my return to the videogame frontier is to be the critically acclaimed Okami from Clover Studios. It’s a decision based upon a number of factors, but significantly it’s the valuable opinion of fellow gamers that helped forge this path and convince me that this was the right choice given the options outlined in my previous post.

First impressions are very positive; from the outset I fell in love with the Sumi-e [1] art style implemented throughout. The unfolding back story that tells the tale of how Shiranui, the wolf incarnation of the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu, and the warrior Nagi defeated the demon Orochi and brought peace to the village of Kamika for 100 years, is visually simplistic, but yet it’s still evocative as bold brush strokes wash across the screen canvas bringing life to the textual narration.

This wonderful visual art style is carried further into the game, albeit in more detail and colour, as we learn how Orochi has been unwittingly released corrupting the land and it’s up Amaterasu to restore nature to its verdant state. And even though I’m writing here about a game that was originally developed for the PS2, and subsequently ported to the Wii by Ready at Dawn studios, the final result is still an astoundingly beautiful game to behold.

It’s the simple things which sometimes stand out in a game that you really learn to appreciate. Small touches that are admirable, but perhaps cause you to question there inclusion and wonder “Are they really necessary?”. The answer, resoundingly, is “Yes!”. They’re just as much a part of Okami and it’s overall style as are the characters themselves. It’s hard to imagine Okami without the thick black outlining that surrounds objects and characters, or the simple brushstrokes that represent the distant mountains, or even the trail of flowers that sprout forth from the ground and burst into bloom behind Amaterasu as she races across the land. The removal of any one of which would diminish the overall effect so successfully portrayed.

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I thought it would be prudent after the quite impressive Chronicles of Riddick demo to take Wheelman, the game designed to tie in with the movie of the same name starring Vin Diesel, for a test drive.

To be honest I was feeling a little bit apprehensive about this demo. After all, movie related games aren’t exactly renowned for there quality and generally give the impression of being thrown together just to ride upon the coat-tails of celluloid success . My expectations, therefore, weren’t high.

The demo kicks off with an impressive opening cinematic as the camera sweeps majestically over Barcelona harbour before finally speeding into the city itself where it centres upon a stationary car. Within, sits our protagonist, Milo Burik. He waits patiently, glancing in his mirrors, and doesn’t seem phased when a local police car slowly drives past. A few heartbeats later the camera pans to a building as we witness an unidentified woman exiting possibly what is a bank. She steadily walks towards the parked car, but seconds later an alarm sounds. It’s your job to get her to safety.

I must admit that at this point in the demo my impressions were entirely positive. The opening sequence had been enticing; the in-game graphics looked great, and I thought to myself that if Wheelman continues this level of quality and polish then maybe, just maybe, we would have a rarity on our hands: a decent movie-game tie-in.

Alas, it wasn’t to be, and the more I played Wheelman the more my enthusiasm diminished.

The initial chase through the city, evading the police and then a local gang, is quite entertaining as you streak through the streets trading paint with your pursuers and causing spectacular crashes which are played out in slow motion. In some respects it feels as if Burnout has had a small part to play in influencing Wheelman during this early chase sequence, but in fact the further you progress into the demo the more obvious it becomes that Wheelman is a concoction of borrowed styles all aspiring to make this more than just a racing game.

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Game demos seem to come in two flavours - those that ease you in gently and those that throw straight into the action without any explanation. In some respects the latter approach is perhaps the best way to experience a demo; the raw nature of being plunged into the deep end quickly highlights any flaws and it allows the formulation of an opinion based upon the time it takes to go from bewilderment to enlightenment. The faster this can be achieved, the more intuitive the game is to play.

Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena successfully takes the latter approach, and anyone who is remotely familiar with first person shooters shouldn’t have too much trouble learning the nuances of controlling the anti-hero Riddick and dropping straight into the game.

This demo doesn’t really give too much of the plot away. All that can be surmised is that Riddick has escaped, is working in cooperation with another mercenary, and is about to free all the captured prisoners aboard the Dark Athena. This story fragment is really of little consequence until we get to see the bigger picture in the released game, but it does at least give us a brief (very) insight into the characterision - especially that of Riddick, whom thanks to active participation of Vin Diesel looks and sounds like he should.

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The first downloadable expansion for Grand Theft Auto: IV, The Lost and Damned, is finally here, gifting us with the perfect excuse to return to the playground of Liberty City once more. It already looks like it’s going to be the new benchmark for DLC that all others will be judged by given its reported success [1] and critical acclaim [2], and although I’ve only managed to spend a few hours with the game, so far it’s the entertaining and polished product one would expect from Rockstar North.

The first thing that caught me by surprise with TLAD was the opening sequence, or more specifically the fact that the adventures of Johnny Klebitz and The Lost motorcycle club begins with an impressive opening cinematic that would make most retail games envious. It sends out a message - this isn’t going to be the run-of-the-mill DLC we’ve generally come to expect. This is, in essence, a separate game, a new experience, albeit set within the confines of familiar surroundings.

I appreciate the continuity that is evident in TLAD, it serves to put the events and experiences of our protagonist Johnny into context with those of our eastern European friend Nico. It provides us with a time-line that we understand and can relate with. Nico has a couple of notable cameo appearances during the early stages of TLAD. We first witness him pushing through the crowded streets, presumably shortly after arriving in Liberty City, and then secondly we meet him in the company of Playboy X and Elizabeta. It’s during this second encounter when the web of entwining stories that Rockstar North are able to proficiently weave becomes apparent.

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After many months of deliberating I finally took the plunge and decided to purchase Wii Fit. To be honest it wasn’t for Wii Fit itself, but for the Balance Board, which I wanted to combine with Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip. In the end however, and perhaps to my surprise, it’s Wii Fit that has seen regular use.

I think it’s fair to say that Wii Fit has endured quite a bit of scorn and scepticism during its brief life. Quite possibly because it represents the new “casual” Nintendo, not the hardcore fan service of yesteryear. But I don’t really take offence with what they (Nintendo) are doing; they’re just tapping into a mostly untouched demographic and are fully exploiting it for all it’s worth before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon. In the meantime I’ll get most of my kicks on another console - that’s my prerogative.

For the record, I don’t necessarily view Wii Fit as a game in the traditional sense, although I do think it’s challenging the boundaries of what’s conceptually acceptable as a video game. It does after all have some of the qualities present in most video games - active participation with feedback, unlockable rewards, high score tables, and a goal in the form of self improvement. However, I prefer to think of Wii Fit as something more akin to say a fitness DVD. A motivational tool that’s far more entertaining than grinding out 30 minutes on a mind numbingly dull piece of fitness apparatus. And although the benefits may be proportionally less than a specialised piece of equipment, I believe it can still find place, especially if used regularly as part of an overall training plan.

The actual exercises’ within Wii Fit are split into four distinct categories: Yoga, Muscle Workouts, Aerobic Exercises, and Balance Games. To begin with not all the exercises in each category are unlocked, but instead they are slowly revealed as the total amount of Wii Fit minutes accumulates in the piggy-bank. This not only helps promote a gradual progression, but it also serves to act as a simple reward mechanism – the more you play, the more you’ll unlock, and hence the more you’ll get out of Wii Fit. Tutorials are provided for both the Yoga and Muscle Workouts with each one clearly demonstrated and explained by your personal trainer, whom will also provide useful feedback and recommendations during the actual exercise depending upon the movement being fed back from the balance board.

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Tom Clancy seems like he’s associating his name with a variety of games these days, and not just tactical shooters, albeit all of them having a military theme of some sort. The latest offering, HAWX, hopes to take to the skies with the aim of shooting down its nearest rival: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

I must admit that I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for air combat games. It’s probably because I had delusions of becoming a pilot whilst growing up and spent many pleasant hours flying around stark battlefields in games such as F-15 Strike Eagle
[1], and Gunship 2000
[2] – basically I would play anything from Microprose back in the day. I am always keen to see how any air combat game fairs; perhaps with the hope of rekindling a long lost passion.

With HAWX we’re thrust into the world of the PMC (Private Military Contractor) as an ex-USAF pilot now working for Artemis, whom have recently secured a defence contract with Brazil in the year 2021. In this demo you get to play through a couple of missions, although the first of which is really nothing more than an elaborate tutorial to familiarise oneself with the controls whilst practicing some rudimentary air combat against some remote drones. It does however demonstrate the difference between “assistance on” and “assistance off”. The latter apparently gives you more manoeuvrability but forces you to adopt a distant view of your aircraft, rather than a chase or cockpit camera angle - which to be honest you’re either going to love or hate. Personally, this view isn’t for me, and I found it incredibly disorientating. I want to feel like I’m flying a multi-million pound military fighter, not controlling a remote controlled plane I just purchased from Toys R Us. At least it’s an option – so everyone should be happy.

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I’ve recently returned to some older titles that have been sat forlornly on the shelf gathering dust for the last year or so before they become a forgotten casualty of my impulsive spending habits. With that in mind I decided to start playing Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360, a game I bought upon release but only played for about an hour or so before putting it down and returning to whatever game I was in the midst of at the time – which I think was Mass Effect.

For the first few hours I was amazed and enthralled by Assassins Creed. Primarily based during the year 1191 at the time of the Third Crusade in the Holy Land, this point in history provides us with the opportunity to visit some diverse and interesting locations, and I believe anyone would be impressed by the detailed locations of Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem. These vast areas feel impeccably designed and present the illusion of a living, breathing medieval cities; replete with peasants, roving guards, scholars, beggars, drunkards, and phenomenally beautiful architecture. It’s hard not to be dumbstruck upon first visiting each city, especially upon climbing to the highest point atop a church spire or a mosque’s minaret and surveying the surrounding cityscape.

However, Assassin’s Creed has a fatal flaw that relegates the game from being great, to plainly average, and quite possibly to the depths of just downright annoying - and that’s the repetitive nature of the information gathering missions. For each of your nine targets marked for elimination you are required to gather at least three (from six) bits of information about the mark so as to get the local blessing of the assassin’s guild, and to help plan your assassination attempt. But in each instance these missions never really vary throughout the entire game. I will either have to eavesdrop, pick someone’s pocket, interrogate an individual via fisticuffs, or complete a timed flag gathering or guard assassination mission for an informer. Initially they’re all relatively interesting, and perhaps one could perhaps forgive the odd reuse, but to use the same pattern over and over again is perhaps taking things too far.

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Halo Wars may just be the perfect swan-song for Ensemble Studios. Best known for there Age of Empires series, this Microsoft owned development studio whom specialise in RTS games unfortunately shut up shop earlier this year (29th January) after completing work on what could have been there best seller to date given the strength of the Halo fan base.

Set twenty or so years before the events in Halo: Combat Evolved the demo introduces you to the first couple of campaign missions for the UNSC. In addition there are basic and advanced tutorials to help players more familiar with first person shooters acclimatise to the nuances of a real time strategy game, and there’s also skirmish mode to play against the AI on one of the maps.

Firstly, this does feel like an RTS by the numbers approach to the franchise and follows the familiar template - we have a base to construct, units to produce, resources to gather, and of course an enemy to smite. I’m struggling to identify any real innovation, and I’ll admit to not being an RTS connoisseur of late. But if you expect nothing more of the genre, then based upon my time with the demo, you’ll be more than happy with the results here as it is competently handled.

Historically, RTS games on consoles have suffered when it comes to user input, usually as a direct result of trying to map complex controls more suited to a mouse and keyboard to the limited options available on a controller. Fortunately Halo Wars feels like it has achieved the correct balance between simplicity and complexity and predominately uses the “A” button for selections, “X” for movement and targeting, and then the left thumb-stick to highlight options within circular menus and to pan around the screen. The net result is that you’re free to concentrate on the base building and strategy without having to navigate endless menu screens whilst wrestling with the controls.

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