Ian – One Year On

Firstly, apologies to the 0.5 people who actually pay attention to the updates contained within this blog. Updates got sparser and sparser, until we apparently forgot we had a Blog. I’m not going to promise to make any regular updates, but I’m going to whizz through the last 12 months in as amusing a fashion as I can muster up at this time of night. Then, as Sheffield Cabin Fever sets in further, I can start bitching about other things as they come up.

• Ducking and Weaving

So, apparently we’ve been playing videogames wrong our entire lives, meaning we now have to buy more accessories for our consoles and move the coffee table any time we want to play Dance Central (a game I am tempted to try purely to support my beloved Harmonix). I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t largely made my mind up about these technologies, because one of my character flaws is being quite quick to form first impressions. However, I also have the remarkable ability to form second opinions which are polar opposites of my first ones. I started to warm to Move when Namco announced they were going to be releasing Time Crisis:Razing Storm with Move. It was then announced that they’d bundle Time Crisis 4 and Deadstorm Pirates in with it. As long as they don’t get greedy and pull an Activision on the release RRP, Sony may have sold at least 1 Playstation Move controller (and possibly a pointless gun attachment, something I’m willing to forgive Sony for producing, but not Nintendo). Heavy Rain: Move Edition as a software patch on the existing game further compounds my interest, as an improvement on the already fascinating use of a PS3 controller can be at least met with curiosity, and at most met with a warm, loving embrace (an embrace that you can hopefully screw up the button pressing for to waggle your character’s body about like a yoyo like some kind of deranged puppet master).

On the opposing side of the HD Console Controller Revolution, Kinect’s versions of Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Nintendogs doesn’t hold my interest in anywhere near the same way. The technology behind it certain seems like it could have some amazing applications (or at the very least, it might finally persuade my brother to buy an Xbox 360 of his own so he can play fitness). Until the software catalogue perks up though, my £130 is going to go on buying a rageproof 360 controller. If Kinect plans to make the player the controller, and losing at games makes me take it out on the controller, then frustrating Kinect Experiences will probably constitute self harm.

• NintenDO

A somewhat hypocritical bullet point, given the Nintendo-bashing nature of the last paragraph and my previous posts, but Nintendo’s E3 press conference blew me away as much as they could blow me away without announcing a Mischief Makers remake. We almost forgot that Kirby and Pit weren’t just smash brothers characters, but Nintendo wrote out a love letter to their hardcore fanbase with their software lineup (Perhaps a literal love letter if the swathe of attractive ladies with 3DS’s is anything to go by). Finances permitting, I now plan to buy another Wii and NOT sell it when I don’t use it for a little while, making me the biggest hypocrite in history (apart from Lord Prescott).

• if (year = 2010){playstation++;}

Xbox 360 fanboys rejoice at Sony getting off their high horse and starting to charge people a subscription for something (even if online play is still free). I caved in and got a 90 day subscription, and think I’ve already got my money’s worth in 2 content updates. £11.99 taught me 3 things. 1- PSN Minis can be good, 2- I hate Wipeout games, and 3 – Playstation Plus works. Xbox Live has provided better value for money for its gold customers with earlier demo access and deals on its digital catalogue, so why shouldn’t Sony do the same? I may not bother buying anything on PSN full price ever again, now that I know a few months down the line I can get a hefty discount. Now all we need is for the Xbox 360 to provide BBC iPlayer as a free service available to all, and we may as well flip a coin to decide which console to recommend to our friends.

• Older and Wiser

Working a part time job doesn’t afford one the opportunity to buy every £40 release that tickles one’s interest. Waiting anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of years can probably halve or quarter your gaming expenditure. This I realised when I walked into CeX and bought “The Club” on Xbox 360 for £3. Having paid full whack for it at release I was understandably annoyed, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to add it to my collection again (which I now operate a “Currently Playing or love too much to trade” policy on). The GOTY contenders of 2007-2009, and even the retail failures of 2010 can be picked up for half of what a dedicated fan would pay for it on release (begging the question, why buy games at release at all). Dark Void, Mirror’s Edge, Bayonetta, Bioshock 2, Dark Void, Infamous, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell Conviction, Burnout Paradise, Assassin’s Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, Skate 3, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Final Fantasy 13, Gears of War 2. All these games I have seen for at most half of their original £40 starting price, and anyone who looks at this list and says there is nothing good to play this summer should download Invisiblehand for Firefox or Chrome, and get buying. Joe was recently not pleased to hear his beloved Alone in the Dark was being flogged for £1.99 by GAME, and the list of games that make me release a small internal gasp when I see the price after a few months is far longer than what i have listed above.

• Oh, and PC gaming too.

For all Gabe Newell’s proclaimations about how the PS3 will be the platform of choice for Portal 2 players (He’s obviously never tried playing an FPS on a PS3), Steam still continues to be the big platform of choice for Portal 1, along with the vast cohort of other games, many of which are too small to see a boxed release. During the infamous Steam Summer Sale (with banner advertising so charming I just wanted to buy everything), I added 9 games to my collection, depriving me of hard drive space. Reducing games just enough to push would be purchasers into spending money has damaged our wallets, and fattened those of developers who use the service, and nobody seems to be unhappy with the arrangement. The 93% piracy rate for Machinarium (and subsequent Pirate Amnesty) notwithstanding, Steam is the last bastion of hope for the ailing PC platform (Civilisation V and Starcraft 2 also notwithstanding). I hope to continue lining Gabe Newell’s pockets in future.

• Oh, and Blur is better than Split/Second, and people who tell you otherwise are fake’n'gay.

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~ by mallowman87 on August 8, 2010.