New Destiny Retail Details

What will we explore in the new Bungie adventure?

Why Am I A Console Game?

[Short Answer] I hate you PC Folk

The Continual Problems with Battlefield 4

Why the DICE multiplayer needs another tweak...

Six Months with Microsoft Next Gen Hardware

Games Console or Entertainment System?

The Best DLC Money Can Buy

Does it have Zombies, Burials or Dragons.....?

Wednesday 21 December 2011

2011 - The Best Year In Video Games

It’s that time of the year again where we are due to assess the cream of the crop from this years biggest Xbox 360 releases. Today I will be providing a run down on the games, the people, the stories and the disappointments that followed.

Of course not many people would argue that 2011 has been one of the biggest years in gaming, the 3DS was released, new consoles were predicted and massive games were played my millions around the world.

There have been some amazing game designs; the quirky Portal 2, the solid FIFA 12, the enormous Skyrim, the deep Batman: Arkham City, the dastardly Dark Souls, and the finale of a global king came in the form of Gears of War 3. Each is brilliant in it’s own way and made for some fantastic pieces of entertainment.

The biggest point of debate this year that is really highlighted by my list is the fact that each and every one of those games is a sequel in some respect. Here in lies the industries biggest monster; originality.

Obviously we are coming to the end of the current console generation but that should mean we need sequel and remakes to keep us happy. Originality has always been the key to cracking a market open and it’s up to the developers to take that risk. Maybe it’s the recession that they are worried about or that the line between a game being a hit or a miss becoming too defined. Over the last few years it has become tough to find games that performed at an average level – games either perform really well or slump.

Developers have said that they are getting as far as possible with current specifications and have been tricking the systems into doing what they want it to. Cliffy B and the like are now looking towards the next generation with their new IP’s and looking at what they want the new hardware to do.

2011 is certainly the peek of this generation as a time for the best talents to produce their greatest work. It’s distinctive in the way things have been produced this year and the plethora of HD remakes we have seen.

I would not say that 2012 is looking like a bad year but it is a general form that console cycles suffer towards then end of their lives.

The biggest things to change in the industry this year has to be the increase in PC and online gaming. The release of OnLive has tested the cloud gaming market and the Steam users list has also increased dramatically over the last 12 months. It’s a smart innovation and a great direct to go for all those involved as this will give people the chance to play almost anywhere.

Obviously mobile gaming has been one of the shiners this year – I mean who’d have thought that GTA III would ever be played on your phone on the go. People have always played games by the millions and if you think now 93% of all iPhone users play games too that has probably increased by a substantial percentage too.

It’s not every year that a new console arrives and this year we have been treated to two – albeit the Vita will arrive any day now but has been out in Japan since February. If you’ve been following the gaming websites this year you will have heard the uproar about handheld gaming ever since the 3DS hit in July. The sales figures are still well shy of 10 million units worldwide and when you compare this to the 150 million iPhones in circulation I can see why people think this form of gaming is dying out.

Obviously mobile gaming is technically behind the handhelds but this market is indisputably about pick up and play games and not necessarily your 10 hour stints. It’s suffice to say though that mobile gaming has come a long way and has had some great additions over the last 12 months including of course GTA III and the brilliant Infinity Blade. Its interest to think that you can have a fully functioning GBA on your Android phone which could very easily play N64 games too.

I am personally starting to believe that the dedicated handheld systems are behind us and mobile gaming is where to look for the future. The iPhone may be winning at the moment but it hasn’t quite won the war.

Of the back of the poor 3DS sales we can see that Nintendo have had a bad year. Their truly killer games were slow to emerge and I don’t even think the Christmas period will have saved their blushes. They have given their console a massive price cut which is also never a good sign when you look at historical console releases. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

The standard Microsoft vs. Sony vs. Nintendo debate has been as hot and messy this year as all those previous but we can strip away Nintendo due to the above. I’d have to say that Microsoft has won this year with their exclusive IP’s and their higher market share. Kinect has gone down a storm too and has been on most people’s Christmas lists while Sony has failed to bring anything new to the table. Of course this could all change next year as the biggest console announcements arrive in the form of the Playstation 4 and the Xbox 720 (if that is their real names).

The current generation has settled into its groove now and I think it’ll be a hard fought war over the closing periods of the specified lifecycles. The Xbox sales are still going well and had it’s strongest week ever at the end of November whereas the price cut on the Playstation

Motion sensitive gaming is still going ahead and both the Kinect and Move are expected to play at part in the new consoles from both the big companies. Neither have produced anything of shear worldwide quality but that isn’t to say they never will.

Both have invested plenty of money into exclusive downloadable content and it’s difficult to truly tell who has the best console up their sleeves. It’s been a hard year for everyone and the gaming community has suffered too. You can almost bet your bottom dollar on this being the reason why sales have suffered and also why companies have been less invested in taking on new IP’s.

Here's to a great 2012! Merry Christmas all and enjoy the New Year.

Skyrim - Patch 1.3

Another Skyrim patch (namely 1.3) is now available for download from Xbox Live.

The patch, which is already available on Steam for the PC version, improves stability and fixes several problems with the Radiant story engine and fixes the issues raised in their previous patch.

The latter issues like Dragons flying backwards and resistances not working have now been resolved and therefore this should be downloaded immediately if you were foolish enough to download 1.2 (no offence)

The full specification outlined by Bethesda can be found below. Of course I’ll update this further should any other changes or points of interest occur.

•General stability improvements.
•Fixed Radiant Story incorrectly filling certain roles.
•Fixed magic resistances not calculating properly.
•Fixed issue with placing books on bookshelves inside player purchased homes.
•Fixed dragon animation issues with saving and loading.
•Fixed Y-look input to scale correctly with frame-rate.

Industry Changes in 2011

A few years ago editorials and articles across the globe were outraged at the high price of gaming. People were furious that developers had increased store prices to cover their ever higher production cost and it was falling on the public to pick up the pieces. It’s strange then to think that it is now common place for free gaming in 2011.

On mobile devices, social networking sites and MMO’s the free game is extremely common and developers are looking at loyalty as a way of making money. They now expect a small percentage of players to pitch in some coins for in game items, collectables or personal customisation.

It’s surprising to think that Activision’s biggest roll-out this year was their new Elite offerings that gave people extra ways to enjoy Modern Warfare 3.

Obviously the other big player this year was the increased volume of games being supported with deep and steady downloadable content. This has become a more and more common sales tactic recently and provides us all with extra reasons to pick up and play last month’s big releases. Developers have pulled resources from their new-IP’s and given them the opportunity to add depth to their AAA titles.

On the other hand Steam has become even bigger too over the last 12 months. The online service proves that impulse purchasing is the norm when looking at the reduced pricing schemes. It once again shows that a fancy box does not necessarily sell a game and instead proves gaming is about the experience of the player.

Demos and Trials are common place too on both XBLA and the PSN; with each developer pushing for your attention. These come in all shapes and sizes and give the player enough time get them interested before performing the common curtain call.

Games have of course had a tough year in general but when you look at the quality released then you can see why this is still the most exciting sector of the entertainment industry. Lets hope 2012 continues to bring us blockbusters every month.


Thursday 15 December 2011

Halo 4 - Character Changes

Finally some news on Halo 4 – even if it is just an interview I’m still excited.

Halo has of course been one of the standout successes on both of Microsoft’s home consoles and it look like the fourth outing is going to run the same path. 343 Industries recently confirmed that we won't be seeing the same old Master Chief in Halo 4 that we are used to.

In an interview the Halo franchise director, Frank O'Connor, confirmed that the Chief's armour will undergo some changes in the new game.

Not much else was expanded on this apart from saying that these changes are both for aesthetic purposes and other are for story related reasons.

According to O’Connor it’s not only John-117 that has undergone a change; Cortana has also evolved since the Halo 3 ending.

In the Halo Universe it has been said that the lifespan for a smart AI is 7 years before they enter a state of rampancy. She has been exposed to far more information than an average AI so her information intake will affect her more.

It is well known the Halo 4 will be the beginning of a new Halo trilogy that will attempt to bring back the same sense of discovery that made the original game so popular.





Gamer being sent to War?

To demonstrate that a new audio system “takes you there” a New Zealand branch of a headset company are taking a 24-year-old Kiwi gamer into a real war zone: Iraq. Let’s face it – it’s not the perfect backdrop for an advertising campaign.

This is not about politics and no matter how you feel about the conflict there has obviously been a significant human cost. The Middle East is not a playground and I’m sure the families of the men and women serving in the area would agree that this is a very distasteful exercise.

Estimates have put the civilian cost at well over 100,000 and if you include deaths due to lawlessness and poor health care that number would only increase further.

The studio are quoted as saying that, "Gamers play in virtual war zones every day and night, and they want the immerse feeling of combat so we thought we'd take that experience one step further. The whole project has been an experience. Though there was a huge amount of planning it's fair to say the journey proved... interesting."

War is not a game. The Middle East conflict is not somewhere to go to advertise any product, service or experience. The reality is that this has been a devastating conflict that has affected millions worldwide and this stunt has simply tried to trivialise the entire situation.

Real war zones and virtual war zones are nothing alike. Real war is a deadly serious business, devastating local populations. Virtual war is make believe, it’s only a few steps away from playing laser quest or chasing your friends around with water pistols as a child.  For the people fighting in the armed forces this is reality, they know the job is dangerous and we should all show them the utmost respect.

IGN put this best by saying that “each piece of PR this gets – positive or negative – will only serve to make the whole stinking exercise worth it. It's why we haven't named the product involved.”

I’m doing the same thing as I also believe – “It's not appropriate to exploit real war to flog a line of video game headsets”.

I’m quite disgusted!


Windows Store

Microsoft have started to aggressively market their new App Store challenger, the Windows Store; explaining that this will offer developers more customers, more money and more freedom.

The main corporate advantage is that developers will keep 70% of all the money made from their app sales as standard which is also set to increase to 80% when sales exceed 25,000. This means that alternative App Stores will have to decrease their sales share in order to continue competing in the market should the Windows Store take off.

"It's not a small opportunity, it's not even a medium one or a large one," said Antoine Leblond at the recent press conference. "In fact, it's the most significant developer opportunity ever."

He also explained that due to the popularity of Windows the market area is vast and the opportunity to profit from this new venture is massive for all those concerned. He shouted about Windows sales over the last 2 years and how they have exceeded the combined sales total of all iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac devices.

Initially the Windows Store will be available in over 100 languages, and support local currency payments in the top 40 regional world markets (by GDP).

Another advantage of the Windows Store is that it won’t restrict developers to certain business models and Leblond told the audience that eBay and PayPal are integrated in the support of the store.

News has also filtered down to confirm that there will be free trials available for the applications on sale too but no news yet on whether this is a necessity.

It’s interesting to hear that the Windows Store will be a lot more interactive then their competition as people can upload lists of their most useful applications and give detailed reviews on their purchases to let others know great or terrible they are.

The Windows 8 Store should be considered a glimpse of what the Xbox Live system could one day offer and sits easily on the recently released dashboard. The beta will be out late in February 2012 for everyone worldwide.


3DS Ambassador Update - GBA Promotion Release

Nintendo have finally decided that tomorrow will be the day that their 3DS Ambassadors will be released their 10 Game Boy Advance games. In fact this is the first time that the full list has been publicly detailed.

This has come several months after releasing half of its Ambassador Program games to the public. I mean they did initially say that we would all get the game before the end of 2011 but boy did they cut that fine.

Currently the information publicly offered relates to Japan but we can imagine that this will be an exact swift for both America and European Ambassadors too.

Here is the full list of GBA games:

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Metroid Fusion
Wario Land 4
WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgame

Again, this list and the release date currently apply only to Japan but this should be the same time globally maybe even the same day.

I’m quite looking forward to this new selection of game. What are you most looking forward to getting your hands? Have you played these before?

Thursday 8 December 2011

Metal Gear Solid: Ultimate Edition

Zavvi are offering a Limited Edition Xbox 360 version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. This used to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive and contains the same selection as their Ultimate Edition. This Xbox package is available for pre-order now and costs £69.99.

The Limited Edition is due to be a Zavvi exclusive across the UK and Europe with a mere 6000 copies on the PS3 and 4000 copies on the Xbox 360. In total only 8000 (PS3) and 5000 (360) units are being made worldwide.

Last month Zavvi announced it had altered the contents of the Metal Gear Solid HD Ultimate Edition set, which it original advertised in August. This was the PS3 only version that included a download code for Metal Gear Solid 1 and also five exclusive art cards.

You now get the following alongside a copy of the game:

• Metal Gear Solid steel book
•Exclusive Metal Gear Solid T-shirt
•Exclusive 250 page premium art book showcasing the artwork of Yoshi Shinkawa (character designer of the series)


Xbox Dashboard Update

The new Xbox 360 dashboard has been released today but continued to be plagued by problems up until release.

Users have been flagging issues to Microsoft’s customer services all day which have ranged from video issues to bricked consoles. One of the most common issues is that some Xbox Live accounts are completely unable to connect to the service.

Microsoft’s Major Nelson has been tweeting all day with updates on the progress of this issue and has continually stated that they are ‘aware of the issues’.

If you are one of the unfortunate few experiencing problems then please keep an eye on the status page on the Xbox website for up to day information.

The dashboard itself looks lovely and is very user friendly. It might take some time to get used to it but it’ll be worth the effort. Also ‘Inside Xbox’ can now been found in the Video section.

Hopefully this should all be ironed out before the end of the day.

Good luck Microsoft!



Monday 5 December 2011

Microsoft vs Sony

Over the last few weeks various sites have given their opinion in the console war and which one has particularly won 2011. All arguments that I have read have actually come off the back of some very well thought out decision processes.

A few weeks back IGN, in particular Colin Moriarty, published an opinion piece suggesting that the PS3 will beat the Xbox before this generation is over. He gave a very deep opinion of the conjectures of lifetime sales, world averages and actually made a bit of headway with me. Obviously I disagree with his opinion but feel that his views do have a good set of reasons behind them.

He spoke a lot about numbers but for us 360 users it’s interesting to see that his argument that the 360’s current lead in sales over the PS3 is due to the earlier release. The point he didn’t mention was that the system was able to achieve more then the market share and that people brought it not just because it was the next generation, but because it was an amazing piece of kit. Obviously it was also the first HD console on the market which does help somewhat.

The early adopters like me have backed the 360 from the start and I’m pleased to see that Microsoft continues to improve the Xbox community and have even increased sales this year by 20% over the same period in 2010. In fact the Xbox 360 currently holds more than 40% of the whole market share which in itself is very impressive.

 What if the PS3 had the earlier release? Would their head start have fared better than Microsoft’s? The biggest feature of the PS3 was its ability to play Blu-ray movies and which only improve the viewing quality on HDTV’s. Unfortunately for Sony the HD market didn’t really kick off until 2007 and this was thanks to some aggressive pricing in the 2006 Christmas period. Had the PS3 launched in 2005 before the Xbox 360 then it would have suffered due to the investment that was involved for many non-HD gamers.

The other big factor that we need to consider is the exclusives for each console as the top 50 games on each platform are usually multi-platform IP’s anyway. In fact the PS3 has 16 exclusive titles on its top 50 list whereas the Xbox 360 only has 15. The amazing thing about this is that although the PS3 has more exclusive titles and a worldwide unit total of just over 57 million the Xbox 360 has sold over 82 million units of its exclusive titles.

Overall the PS3 has suffered from both poor early decision making and generally bad marketing but has fought extremely well against their odds. The Xbox 360 however seems to be stronger than ever and looks like it is the sure fire bet to win the battle of the HD generation.

[UPDATE] – Microsoft announced this week that they have sold 960 thousand Xbox 360 units. This actually makes it the most successful seven days in the history of the consoles lifecycle. In fact 800,000 of these units were sold in a single 24 hour period (presumably the US shopping day Black Friday)

Skyrim Patch 1.2

As I’m sure most of you are aware the open world epic, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has been released with its fair share of glitches that have been very publicly noted over the past few weeks. Bethesda have now confirmed that their update patch will be released this week and should rectify all the major issues players are experiencing.

The main feature of this patch will be to fix the game-breaking bug that has plagued many PS3 based games. The updates will also fix a number of other performance based issues including the Xbox 360 texture problems outlined in my previous post a few weeks ago.

The update is available for download on PlayStation 3 now, with a PC and Xbox 360 roll-out expected this week too… actually these may have been release today.

UPDATE 1.2 will fully include:

•Improved performance issues resulting from long term play (PS3)
•Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
•Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
•Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
•Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player's wedding dead
•Dragon corpses now clean up properly
•Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
•Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
•Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
•Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
•Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armour
•Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
•ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
•Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
•General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)

Unfortunately those of you that saw my tweets yesterday will have heard that although this update rectifies most problems it has also imported a few of its own. The most notable of which are the fact that magic resistance, elemental resistance, and poison resistance simply don't work at all anymore and that Dragons can now fly backwards. For example your mage with 85% magic resist will no have 0% after the update is applied. The same goes for anyone playing as a Nord that is suppose to have 50% frost resist but now has 0%. Funnily your vampire that's supposed to be immune to poison can now also get poisoned. These are not game breaking in any way but have actually made me pass up the update myself as I’ve had no issues prior to this fix.

Apparently this issue also applied for NPC’s and creatures so you can now kill that Frost Atronach with Ice Spells.

The fact the Dragons Fly backwards makes me think of Deep Blue Sea and the ‘intelligent sharks’ that cause havoc for Samuel L Jackson and friends.

For those worriers, Bethesda is aware of the problem!

Skyrim's 40/40

Just a quick update to tell you Bethesda's gigantic open world fantasy epic Skyrim is the first western game ever to receive a 40/40 review score in long-running Japanese video game magazine Famitsu.

Famitsu asks four separate journalists to review each video game, requesting that they each submit their own score out of 10. Skyrim, according to Andriasang, received four 10/10 scores, and has therefore hit the impressive 40/40.

Skyrim does not launch in Japan until 8th December where it is sure to sell well following such high praise.

Famitsu was established in 1986 and enjoys a circulation of 500,000 each week.

Skyrim is the 17th video game ever to receive a perfect Famitsu score. It joins an illustrious list that includes The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid 4, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII.

Well Done Bethesda!


3DS Ambassador Update - GBA Promotion

I thought I’d provide a quick update for us 3DS Ambassadors. Firstly several websites have advertised a delay in the ten free GameBoy Advance games promised to the early 3DS adopters advising us that Nintendo have pushed these back until 2012.

In fact one of the websites quoting this change was the Spanish Nintendo site that confirmed the GBA game s would be available ‘from next year’.

The 3DS Ambassador scheme rewards early adopters who bought the 3DS before Nintendo's massive price-drop. So far Nintendo have already spoiled members with 10 free NES games - including Super Mario Bros. and the original Legend of Zelda.

They have also advertised a selection of10 free Game Boy Advance games, including Metroid Fusion, Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart Advance, Wario Ware and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which were original promised to arrive before the end of the year.

Fortunately for all Ambassadors these websites have all been wrong and Nintendo have since confirmed that the GBA offering will still be released this side of the New Year.

Bloody Right Too!

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Xbox 360 Dash Update

It’s almost Christmas and Microsoft have a nice present for all of us Xbox owners. The new dashboard has been confirmed for launches on 6th December to all Xbox Live members.

The free update redesigns the Xbox 360 interface style, bringing it in-line with Microsoft's Windows and Windows Phone products to allow Microsoft to push their connectivity in the future.

The update also adds Kinect style functionality and cloud saving for Xbox Live Gold members. New apps are expected to launch too, including those from the BBC and LoveFilm.

You can still use the Xbox 360 controller to flick between channels that will now be displayed on the top of the screen, alternatively you can use your voice and hands to navigate and search through motion-sensing add-on Kinect.

Under the new Social channel you'll find Beacons, which allow gamers to signpost what they're doing across XBL and Facebook. Facebook posting is also added, which means you'll be able to "like" a game or send Achievements to the social network.

All of this information was found at Kotaku as Microsoft have yet to confirm.


Gaming For Cash

We all want to make money and we all want to live the good life. Wouldn’t that statement be much better if we said this instead? We all want to make money playing video game and we all want to live a good life working with video games.

In this case the person I am thinking of is Toby Smith, his unlikely business proposal on Fivesquids was an attempt t play virtual bodyguard in various Xbox 360 FPS games.

His proposal was to play as your bodyguard for 30 minutes of in game time in return for £5.00 cash. The games listed included Call of Duty 4, Halo Reach and Battlefield Bad Company 2.

The proposal advised ‘I will be by your side the entire time and will fight for you, keeping enemies away from you, protecting you when you snipe, even SACRIFICING MY LIFE to save yours. This is 1/2 hour of GAME TIME, meaning time taken to join a game won't be included.’

I wish I’d come up with this first but I’d never pay for it. I don’t often die anyway – Haha!

Skyrim Patch Announced

As I’m sure you are aware the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has had a few rough edges over the past few weeks. Luckily developers Bethesda have announced a patch for their open world RPG that will launch at some point the week beginning Monday 28th November.

Bethesda employee Pete Hines said that the batch will improve ‘long-term play on PS3’ as this has become quite an issue with that version of the game. When the save game becomes too large the console will not load the data and causes the game to become unplayable due to lag issues. 

Skyrim on the Xbox 360 suffers from a strange texture problem when installed to the console hard-drive but this update should fix this issue. This seems like a strange situation as the hard-drive tends to be the preferred loading point for most other console games.

Pete Hines has also confirmed that the update will not affect current saved games and characters.

The update will be available across all three versions of the game and the console versions are currently been certified by Sony and Microsoft. 


What did Skyrim teach me?

So 2011 might have been the best year to be a video gamer ever… we got great games, massive releases and new trends, features and pre-releases. As the nights draw in the gaming sessions will get longer and we have a great collection of games to spend time with too. Over the past few months we seem to get a classic ever few weeks and a few weeks ago we got the best of the bunch in the form of Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. I have already stumped hours into this game and have many more to give. The brilliance of this blank canvas is that it shows me exactly what I am really like by taking my real world personality to the extreme.


Wimp
I’ll be honest the first few hours I’ve travelled around Skyrim I’ve shown most things the French heel. It’s difficult to imagine what it’s like to be stalked by two sabre-toothed tigers but now I have a pretty good idea and it’s terrifying. I don’t like being beaten so I’ll usually choose a side with the team that likely to win; it’s the main reason why I don’t support the English Football team and also why I can’t bring myself to play a game of cricket.


Hoarder
I suppose I already know this really as I spend most of my money on, games, movies, Cd's and frankly a lot of shit too. Obviously this shows that my hoarding routes were already quite established before Skyrim took a hold on my life. In my personal life I would hoard as much as my Nord if I thought there was any chance that you wouldn’t miss that giant slab of venison from your table. Of course there are acceptable examples of hoarding in Skyrim especially in the case of selling for money but I think I’ve taken this to the extreme. Why do I really need 500 arrows when I’ve only fired my bow once? More to the point why do I need three bows when I’ve only fired one arrow? Why do I find it acceptable to carry 175 apples when I’ve yet to use one in my cooking pot? Ok the only reason I can give is that when I find someone in the game that really annoys me I’m going to drop all my arrows and apples in his house so he looks like dirty health hazard.


Torture
Hurting something in intuitive ways really appeals to my boredom side. I have often found myself on a long haul walk, or ride if I’ve stolen your horse, and come across a hapless creature behind a bush. I wonder whether to fire my bow for the second time in my life and take the creature out in a quick, painless way but that’s not nearly interesting enough. Instead I run full pelt at it and chase it across half the mountain range until I see it edging nearer the Cliffside. It turns wondering why I’ve yet to hurt it and for a split second thinks it’s made a mistake thinking I’m a predator. Unrelenting Force rushes from my shout and the unsuspecting creature is pushed 30 meters from the safety of the mountain where it falls crashing into rocks and breaking bones until it finally comes to a stop 10 full seconds later and 200 foot down. With that I wander down the mountain and set him (or her) on fire so their spirit isn’t cold on its way to the afterlife.

I’m not one to kill animals in my real life but then I’m also no fan of killing gangsters but GTA IV makes me do that too.

Sometimes I even get unsuspecting townsfolk of Skyrim to follow me out into the wilderness where I leave them when wolves attack. It’s not humane but it is very colourful.


Easily Led
It is a wonderful day in Riften; the children are playing, the guards are polite and the townsfolk keep giving me a glancing smile as I pass their way. The sun is shining and my mood is sweet, I couldn’t be in happier as I round the corner of the pub – urgh - some bloke bashes straight into me. I speak to him but he doesn’t even acknowledge his rudeness or realise his subordination… I draw my sword and BAM I slice his throat before his own son comes around the corner. I shout ‘Your next boy’ as the guard’s spring out from everywhere. ‘I did not mean to hurt him’, I say as the upholders of the law slowly approach. BLAM my fire spell goes off and the guards hit the floor. It’s such a shame that they all have such terrible loot too. They should really know that’s what happens when you ruin my day.

I really have lost count of the times I’ve rage attacked someone or stolen a friends belongings, money and weapons. I wouldn’t trust me, neither should you!


Money
Like Demi Moore in striptease, I’ll do anything for the right price. Skyrim has shown me that I will literally kill a whole town for personal gain - I did it in Fallout 3 and I’ll do it again. I’m the capitalists dream – Murder? No Problem, Extortion? No Problem, Interspecies Erotica? No Problem, Nirnroot Collection? No Problem. Killing a Dragon for 10 Gold Pieces? Sign me up!




I know Skyrim has been a worldwide success but I still have a few gripes about the game. I’ll keep this short and sweet so you don’t all hounds me for being a blasphemer.

Firstly what the hell were Bethesda thinking when they made mounts as useless as Oblivion. I’m still walking everywhere and I will not pay 5000 gold pieces to move 20% faster. Fuck off horse I’m not interested in your feeble four legs. I want to cast my flame spell from my saddle but I can’t, I want to swing my sword from a height but I can’t. Useless!

Fallout 3 had a brilliant inclusion in the form of NPC locations on the main compass. This has now been removed but used to ensure that you didn’t have to explore every nook and cranny searching for the one character you need to speak to. The amount of times I’ve check a castle only to find the NPC I’m after standing or sitting next to the door I originally entered through is unbelievable.

Following on from this why can’t I add the Miscellaneous Quests to my compass? It’s downright annoying having to check my map every two minutes to see if I’m heading in the right direction and putting an ‘Active’ marker on the map is as difficult to distinguish as Jedward – it’s not clever and it’s not fun.

I have also noticed that I cannot increase my knowledge in cooking. Was I already the Gordon Ramsey of Tamriel? I can increase everything else so why can’t I cook a Beef Bourguignon?

Please Bethesda can you also stop auto-incrementing my save files I find it very strange. I know this happened in Oblivion too but it makes me self conscious when I’ve saved the game 4000 times and it feels like you are mocking me for my careful nature.

Saturday 19 November 2011

Skyrim - DLC

By now I’m sure you have all had a run at the fifth Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, dare I say it some may have completed the main quest too. If this is the case then you are either running off the remaining side quests or looking to the god of Bethesda for their first confirmation of DLC. The extra content has been confirmed by Bethesda and they have also explained that they will be looking to make more substantial pieces then they did for Oblivion.

This article will be catering towards console gamers more than those on the PC since they will have the mod facilities due in the Skyrim Creation Kit. This will allow people to create their own stories and make their own changes to the main game. There have been several smaller modifications made already from fully zoomed global maps to bears replacing spiders for those who suffer from arachnophobia. One other note to mention is that us Xbox 360 users will be getting the DLC first as part of Bethesda’s exclusive agreement with Microsoft.

I’ve seen a lot of people talking on the forums that they would like the ability to ride dragons, although I think this would be great I wonder if Bethesda would agree. I find it hard to see past the point that this might take away from the dynamics of the dragon encounters and make them seem less of the tough enemies that they were created to be. Sorry guys but I can’t see it happening.

Another strongly mentioned inclusion would be to re-insert the glitch where Chickens report crimes. This has been a hilarious point mentioned online by many people and another that I think would be unlikely due to the immersion that Bethesda wants when playing the game. Chickens don’t report crimes in real life so why would they in Tamriel.

Skyrim has of course introduced the werewolf companions into the main game and set a whole selection of quests around their growing guild. Adding such an option to the Vampire faction would also be a welcome addition. It seems that werewolves have been the more popular choice were scrawling through forums but this might even things out more as you can only be one or the other at any time. It would also be a nice inclusion to give us the chance to contract the diseases again and again so that we could experience the gameplay without being stuck with the different statistic changes that come along with it.

Obviously area improvements or additions would be the most exciting prospect. Oblivions most successful piece of DLC is the hugely successful Shivering Isle that added a whole new, vibrant area for exploration. I love adding little side quests but wandering around the same areas again and again can get a tad repetitive even for a game the size of Skyrim. Of course Solsthiem is right across the sea to the west and held some great quests for those of a higher level in Morrowind; in addition to this the size would be brilliant for the gamers that want somewhere new to hide out. Solsteim also held the first werewolves to ever be found in Tamriel and could tie in very nicely with the main game world. It would also be nice to explore the area with the improved graphics and radiant story system.

What sort of DLC would you like to see? Have you heard anything down the grapevine about what we can expect?


Played too much Skyrim?

As I’m sure any regular readers will know but the game I have been most looking forward to all year is finally here. It’s in our Xbox’s and our Computers, ruining relationships, destroying social activity time and getting people sacked from their day jobs. The last week has flown by in a blur of dragon attacks and fire spells. Anyone who has ever played Tetris for more then an hour will know that video games slowly creep into our real lives.

I remember working out whether my desk at work would completely fit together with my filing cabernet if I turned it 90 degrees on its horizontal axis… unfortunately it wouldn’t. So what signs are there to tell you that you’ve played Skyrim for too long?

1) When a dog runs towards you and your first thought is 'kill it with fire'.

2) You try to Fast Travel to work

3) If you don't have a lighter, you resort to shouting 'BOOSH' at your cigarette.

4) You start walking into the leather shop down the road and hop the counter for a go yourself

5) You put flowers, dust and nails into you lunchtime meal and note down its effects on your health

6) You walk away from people mid-sentence when you find out they haven't got anything interesting to say or sell

7) Once you've made friends with someone, you're positive you can take all their possessions without being accused of stealing.

8) You try to place a basket on the head of the corner shop owner so you can steal a bunch of flowers for your alchemy practice

9) When you go for a run and get knackered after just a few metres, you assume it's because you're wearing the wrong necklace.

10) When you ask that shady looking fellow what his prices are on Skooma

11) When something's too heavy to carry, you start stripping off clothes to see if that helps.

12) When no-one's around, you wander around carefully to increase your stealth skill, really your hoping someone is around and unaware that you're sneaking around them.

13) You only glance at the first page of every book you find, certain that any useful knowledge in the other pages will be automatically absorbed by your mind.

14) If you see a dead rat or badger, you check the carcass for money and cut off its tail, pelt and pull out its teeth to sell at your local greengrocers

15) You look above you every time you hear a dragon in the sky.

If you’ve done any of the above it is probably time for you to play something different! 

Friday 18 November 2011

Skyrim - Glitches Galore

Bethesda have always been know to ship games with strange bugs and glitches. It’s become a common place to almost expect some strange occurrences during the initial release period. Morrowind have a lot of game breakers and the occasional texture, wall, NPC issue but was all in all a very playable game. We remember being able to steal stuff without anyone caring and loved breaking the game by playing two or more of the different houses. Oblivion reduced these issues dramatically but didn’t iron out all the creases. The world was well constructed but you could kill some quest givers, climb on floating paintbrushes and duplicate items out of thin air. That being said we all expect a few minor glitches in Skyrim too but fortunately so far nothing game-breaking has been found.

Shortly after the release of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim it was reported that some users were having problems with texture loading. The funny thing is that Bethesda issued a note to press alongside the copies of the game and advised that Xbox 360 owners should install the fantasy game onto their hard-drives wherever possible. Obviously this forced further issues for us Xbox gamers as the game then suffers from the texture issues but this did not actually force anyone to stop playing the game itself.

Skyrim makes heavy use of cashing to the hard-drive and the initial load times could increase if the game is not fully cached already, or at least installed to the console. Bethesda have now also advised Xbox 360 players that clearing the game cache may increase save game load times. Caching takes place over the normal course of gameplay but is cleared by playing a different game or by manually clearing this in the Xbox dashboard.

In the wake of the texture issues Bethesda were quick to react by saying that a patch will be uploaded as soon as the problem has been fixed. The issue only seems to manifest if you have the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim installed to the hard drive - a process that is entirely optional. In this case, the highest resolution versions of the textures appear to stall and not load, meaning that you're definitely not seeing the game at its best. If you remove the install, and run the game directly from the DVD, the best quality artwork returns.

There are other small gameplay issues that have been experienced by many players over the passed few days. The first of which is one I have suffered from myself and is an annoyance that once again doesn’t actually stop you from playing on. Following the main quest at an early stage you are quested to leave Dragonstone on an errand with a selection of guards. On my way to the front gate I noticed that all the walls to the city had disappeared and I could now see across the tundra in all directions. The main problem was the fact that the door to the city gates was still in place without any bricks or wood to keep it stood up. Being the curious man that I am I took up my Sword and Shield and went for a wander. The thing that interested me the most was that the walls were actually non-existent; I could run around the lifeless door and even wander (albeit a small distance – I got scared) out of the city itself. After a few moments of panic, thinking that I might be pressing my luck, I ran back inside the city walls and left via the town gate where the world was restored to its carefully crafted glory. I have also seen a moose head hanging on open space in the middle of the wilderness with only a single NPC and a table for company.

The second glitch that I have heard about regularly but however not directly experienced is the strange gravity affecting certain areas. This has happened on several occasions in my friends playthroughs and many videos have cropped up on YouTube too. Basically heavy contract in an upward movement can cause the player or enemies to soar through the sky. One example of this occurred during the first time my flatmate picked up his copy of the game; a head on collision with a giant left his Argonian thief 1000 feet above the ground able to see everything for miles in each direction. When he did finally return to earth it’s suffice to say his spirit didn’t.

Other strange glitches include faceless NPC’s, flying horses and the ability to cover over peoples faces with pots before stealing objects. In fact check these out on YouTube for some hilarity and just so you know I haven’t found one yet with any spoilers but of course be careful.

Any strange or unexplainable mysteries you’ve encountered? – Sound off in the comments below.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Xbox - The Next Generation

We all know that Microsoft have a new Xbox on the way in some form or other but can we speculate what developers have in mind. The main developers and publishers clearly know Microsoft's got another Xbox on the way from Tweets and their regular slips of the tongue. For the moment, though, all lips are sealed.

Of course the Xbox 360 remains immensely profitable, more profitable this year than any other, but the second a successor takes shape, you can look forward to a nose-dive in units sold. This is of course the reason for caution - lodging one foot in the door marked ‘tomorrow’ is sensible, but you don’t shoot an old horse if it’s still making you money.

The very earliest I expect we will hear of the next Xbox is during 2012 as the unconfirmed but highly mentioned release date is early 2013. I wouldn’t be surprised though if Microsoft decided to either bring this forward to Christmas 2012 or drop it back to Christmas 2013. We all know stock sells better in the run up to Christmas and its almost guaranteed to support the launch in a constructive manner. The other matter to think about is the fact that the Wii U will be launched at some point in 2012 and holding off for this to run its initial course will only help sales too. The Playstation 4 meanwhile probably won’t be released anytime soon as the Vita is on its way and the PS3 bill is still being paid off.

Even if the specifications for the next Xbox are a mystery it is possible to make educated decisions about what games will appear after release. You can confidently expect a Fifa, PES and the standard yearly sports titles as well as the obvious additions of Call of Duty and some sort of movie tie in to hug the newly launched console a’la King Kong. Either way I expect the following to fall onto the next Xbox some time shortly after its release.


Homefront 2
This was recently announced for a 2014 release as part of THQ line-up for that year and should run on the new CryEngine. Obviously this already looks a bit uncomfortable on current hardware so the leap to the next generation is a no-brainer.

Alien’s – The Game
The small Horsham based developer had a few interviews shortly after the announcement of their new game in which their studio director noted “we're as aware as anybody of what's coming in next generation consoles" when he was asked about the platforms this will be available on. Sounds like a good bet to me.

Halo 5
This one's an easy choice. Microsoft announced a new Halo trilogy at E3, and we somehow doubt there's time to fit them all onto Xbox 360. We've had firm confirmation that Halo 4 won't slide, but Master Chief's fifth outing is almost certainly a next generation game that might even hit during the initial release period to boost sales.

Milo & Kate
The Project Natal turned Kinect no-shower Milo & Kate is a bit of a mystery. Most have outwardly dismissed its release due to the ethical tensions that arise by manipulating a child with hand gestures while others see a different path. We all know that Kinect still has a few kinks and this last year could be being used as a bedding in period before we see a better version released with the new console. Hopefully this will also allow Milo & Kate a release too.

Assassin's Creed 3
Ubisoft have been one of the most outspoken developers and have publically asked Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo to get on with their next generation plans. The thing is they are still very shifty when being asked about Assassins Creed 3. Could this be a hint at the future for the franchise? Maybe Microsoft have already booked this as a next generation game and the developer just wants to finally get the chance to release it.

Red Dead Redemption 2
I would have been tempted to put GTA V here until a few months ago but that now seems like a certainty for the Xbox 360. What we can’t however confirm is whether Rockstar will complete a sequel to the worldwide success, Red Dead Redemption. If they do decide to make a sequel then why wouldn’t they push this back to the next generation; GTA V will certainly see most people through to the end of the current consoles lifecycle anyway.

Gears of War 4
EPIC have stayed strangely tight lipped on both the topic of next generation and about the inevitable forth instalment in the Gears of War franchise. Gears of War 4 could serve as Unreal 4’s secret weapon when the next generation of consoles finally arrive. This was exactly what EPIC did with the Unreal Engine 3 when they debuted the original Gears of War back in 2006.

Samaritan
Following on from Gears I can also see the chance of the Samaritan game finally getting made. We know that the robot trailer was a marvellous accomplishment when it was deployed at the GDC show; not even EPIC could foresee the rapturous fan feedback for the game itself. We know they have confirmed that this cinematic was just to show off what an upgraded Unreal Engine can do but it did look rather nice. I’m one man certainly hoping for EPIC to change their mind.

What games would you like to see hit our consoles next generation and are there any that you think would be helped by the leap over?