The Videogames Tab

One would hope that there are appropriately banging rave tunes on the stereo when driving round Ibiza.

Never got into the first Test Drive game but I'll probably pick up this one.

In other driving-related nonsense, I scrimped and saved my GT5 credits and finally splashed 20 million on the Jaguar XJ13, which promptly aced the Historic Car race I was having trouble with.

Dunno if there's ever been a more beautiful British car:





The detail in these models is astonishing, and the photo editor makes even a moron like me appear semi-competent.

A real (in fact, the only one ever made) one:

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I like Mass Effect 2, but I personally wouldn't compare it to Fallout 3. ME2 had me feeling like I was being shuttled from one story event to the next, just sort of moving through, experiencing content. Fallout 3, I think, does a much better job transcending the rigid structure that is inherent in the systems that operate beneath the surface of a video game. ME2 falls into the common Bioware problem where you're moving from one small, albeit detailed, compartment to the next. The cities and such in ME2 feel like little stand-alone zones of interaction possibilities whereas in Fallout 3 I felt like everything in the game environment overlapped in a relatively natural way.

I guess to try and put it simply (since I'm having a bit of difficulty explaining what I mean, exactly) Mass Effect 2 made me feel like I was watching an exciting film upon which I could have a minor impact where Fallout 3 made me feel like I was experiencing a world. The difficulty with Fallout 3, though is you really have to use your imagination to overcome the intrinsic limits of a videogame. You have to try and integrate the systems and game-logic you can sense running under the hood back into the narrative you're creating for your self as you act within the environment. The more experience you have with video games, and RPGs especially, the easier you will probably find this to do. When I first encountered Fallout 3 I'd been on hiatus from videogames for a number of years and I was disappointed at how transparent I found the game-systems and how that undermined the openness of the game, which everyone was raving about. I returned to it after playing other games and in comparison to those I could easily see the advancements Fallout 3 had made to gaming as an interactive narrative form, and furthermore, my thinking was able to interpret the game mechanics as part of a narrative I was building in my head as I absorbed the games reactions to what I did and considered what my reactions to the game would mean in a narrative sense. For example, when someone I was traveling with was killed (not a spoiler) I immediately, dispassionately checked her body for valuables and took her weapons. On the surface, this was just a function of my knowing how the game worked, but in a narrative context, I took it as my character doing what needed to be done as a natural reaction to the harsh environment in which he was struggling to survive.

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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."

Yeah, I think I was a bit harsh on the game. It's a good game, for sure. I just feel like after playing for 12-15 hours, the colors/atmosphere just started to wear on us, what with the same drab tone all the time.

Obviously, the environment is crazy detailed and quite an achievement, but we just weren't having that much fun playing, and that's really it. MEII is just so much more engaging on a narrative level and all the characters are just head and shoulders better in ME2, IMO.

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Good to see you in the land of the living again, Strummer.

When you think about it, the two games are barely comparable when you get past them both being Western RPGs with a shooter combat mechanic produced by two of the main players in their particular field.

Mass Effect is cinematic, pacey and can be played pretty well as *just* a 3rd person shooter. With conversation trees.

Bethesda take a different, more contemplative, approach. The role playing aspects are immediately deeper (npc interaction, though, isn't as thorough on the surface until you realise that you can hold conversations with almost everyone, not just those who trigger parts of the plot) and combat through VATS is very much turn based. Traditional, in other words.

The Mass Effect games are the spiritual successors to the company's own Knights of the Old Republic RPGs. They're crossover titles, I suppose, and the more traditional Bioware fans are catered for firstly by the Baldur's Gate series and now Dragon Age (still not as sandboxy as Bethesda's finest though).

I love both styles but, as I said a few posts ago, it was a bit of a strain going immediately from Mass Effect to Fallout. Very similar to comparing Gran Turismo/Forza to Need For Speed.

Yeah, at no point am I going to sit here and say Fallout is bad, but I feel like the extreme open-ended style of Fallout can and does leave the player feeling sort of disengaged from time to time, and especially in the inner DC areas, the brown/gray tones just became rather off-putting after a while.

However, for apocalyptic sandbox, Fallout is the place to go. The detail, the scope, it's all there. I guess I just didn't have as much fun playing it, personally.

Meanwhile:

Eve Online



I can haz Bladerunner? A very deep, complex, atmospheric experience.

One of the major gripes for me with the new Fallout games is that, compared to the lush beauty of Oblivion, the world looked nowhere near as interesting to traverse. The Wasteland was smaller in area than Cyrodill but it was much more of a slog to explore.

That said, it is East Belfast a post-apocalyptic wasteland that we're in and I can't imagine the scenery looking much different in real life. New Vegas is slightly better (and The Strip is more vibrant than the DC ruins) but we're really only substituting orange for brown.

Agreed. I must say I was feeling rather visually let down about 40 minutes into Fallout, while Oblivion had me calling friends to come over and see the graphics...

There has been sort of an epidemic of drab brown and gray video games in recent years (Gears of War, Fallout 3,) etc...

One recent game with wide open dazzling landscapes is Just Cause 2. The backdrop is basically a bad action movie but it's tons of fun.

I picked up Just Cause 2 a few weeks ago as it's dropped considerably in price and had many good things said about it, not least on here. It hasn't held my interest at all.

Back to Fallout 3 - Anyone who's playing it on PC and is fed up with the brown could do worse than checking out the Fellout mod. It takes the green tint out of the sky and is really quite pleasing.

It's debatable whether the atmosphere would be so musty so long after the bombs dropped anyway so it doesn't really break with the lore. The New Vegas developers took the hint.

Shucks, man. I found it so satisfying watching the counter add up as I made things explode and driving the Jeeps and dirtbikes down mountains/through the woods and "hang-gliding" over the water...sticking bad guys to walls... I almost want to jump up and start playing it right now.

I dunno, it's definitely worth another chance (mainly because I'll get bugger all selling it) but for pure sandbox joy it doesn't come close to the cuban-heeled Deadwoodery of Red Dead Redemption.

I fully recognise that I'm hard to please these days and if something doesn't impress me in the first half hour I don't have the patience or inclination to stick with it. The only exception recently was the first Bioshock which, apart from the stunning art direction, didn't really grab me at first. After a few months I remembered I still had it, gave it a final run before sticking it on eBay and promptly finished it in one long sitting.

Bioshock Infinite looks very interesting.

Other thoughts: Platstation + has really picked up. I signed up for the first 3 months then cancelled my subscription - the free games were either ones that I already had or rubbish nobody wanted. Took the plunge again before Christmas and it's been excellent - Exclusive access to Betas (DC Universe etc) and 'free' games like Stacking on release day.

Damn good (if rather disturbing, so if you're of a nerv... ach, who'm I trying to kid? ) trailer for the forthcoming Zombie RPG Dead Island.

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Dunno about anyone else, but I think I reached my undead limit around the time of the first Dead Rising. This could be interesting, though.

Turn me on, dead man. - Bonus points here.

RPG you say?

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The Freedom Roads

I did a bit more reading up on it and apparently it's 'RPG elements for character development', probably in the Bioshock stylee.

Website

Multi-platform (inc PC) release sometime this year.

Mass Effect II on the Plasma is just ridiculous. I am a complete addict right now.

The sequel to one of my favourite recent games, The Witcher, is out next month. Early alpha gameplay video below complete with hilarious placeholder voiceover work.



Day 1 purchase for me.

Dragon Age II demo is up on PSN and XBL.

First impressions are that combat is a lot pacier (especially for the Rogue I'm using) but graphics, while improved, aren't improved enough. Bioware seem to be using the same cast of voice actors which is no bad thing but I think I'll stop playing the demo because, in a game as story-driven as this, it's gonna give too much away.

I downloaded it on PSN and have to say that the PS3 version has none of the slowdown and jerky frame rate that DA: Origins had.

Dragon Age 2 demo currently downloading along with Yakuza 4.

Tatty, which character from DA1 voices male Hawke, do you know?

My PS3 appears to be dying. At least I was able to finish Heavy Rain before it goes totally kaput.