the daily inxling!

I’ll say straight up - I’m not a fan of Tomb Raider games.

Progressing through miles and miles of level to screw up for just pressing the jump button a bit too soon, then falling down a crevice, then having to go back and do the same thing again another 10 or more times isn’t my idea of exhilarating excitement, before I discover by accident that I wasn’t meant to be jumping in that direction at all. Any combat is shallow and pointless. It’s an exercise in timing and luck, and the gaming industry’s oldest enemy “Frustrator” rears his familiar face.

Tomb Raider Legend is the 7th of 9 titles in the series (the 9th being the eagerly awaited Tomb Raider Underworld). It’s gone a long way to address the issues mentioned above:

Your “backup” team give you advice. Constantly. Your progress is saved regularly. The combat has been given added depth by the addition of sliding tackles, jumps (with bullet time, of course, what did you expect, real time? n00b) and side kicks, as well as the staple shooting with infinite ammo.

The puzzle solving has evolved too: it’s generally fairly easy to see what you need to do at a given time. There are exceptions, for instance when you’re doing battle with a giant black demon and you have to turn a gravity-gun on these four blocks on the wall that opens a container directly above you that you can use your grapple hook to pull a magical stone out of… I got somewhat stuck as to why the monster, that was taking damage, was just regenerating it. I had to take the stone out to progres! Of course! A bit of explanation would have been useful here.

If I seem unclear as to exactly what the stone, the demon, and the blocks are exactly it’s because I am unclear. That brings me onto my next point: the story has been revamped and includes all manner of arcane nonsense about King Arthur’s sword Excalibur and the cutscenes (skippable, thank God, they’re usually between a checkpoint and a hard part) are well scripted and executed. I say “arcane nonsense” but it definitely serves to drive the story forward and to a wide variety of locations: Kazakhstan, Nepal and Cornwall.

“As in take the M5 to the A30 Cornwall?” Lara asks incredulously, as I admire the improvements in script.

Tomb Raider Legend definitely still suffers from the problems that have always marred the series but the puzzles are original enough, the combat deep enough, and the game presented well enough to make converts of many nay-sayers and bring back the fans that were lost by the atrocity otherwise known as “Angel of Darkness”. If you liked the original Tomb Raiders then you’ll love this. If you want to try to expand away from your usual diet of shootyshooty action games and maimymaimy bloodandguts then pick this up and give it a try.

- John

And yes, I did a whole review without once commenting on her chest. Marvellous.

The PSP. It’s a powerful, well distributed little beast. With a good couple of hour’s battery life, it’s own memory card, good media support, an easy interface, wireless connectivity, USB connectivity and a nice wide screen (while being totally pocket-sized) it has a lot of potential. So why have we seen so many cheap PS2 knockoffs with no thought to maximising the PSP’s unique qualities?

Part of the problem appears to be that it’s thought that making a game for the PSP is simple.

Step 1: take parts of an existing well-liked distributed franchise and either port them directly or rehash them then port them, or tack a bit on then port them (Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, and Prince of Persia respectively).

Step 2: when you’ve managed to compile them successfully, plunge the graphics and animations quality until the framerate rises to a barely acceptable level.

Step 3: ship the game. Yes it looks tacky and is buggy and frustrating, but so are all games for the PSP so who cares?

The consumer does. And since it’s our money, we’re going to spend it on games that have been designed, and implemented from the ground up for the console. Silent Hill: Origins is such a game. Without doubt the best lighting we’ve seen on the PSP, and it can rival plenty of XBox 360 games. It can be noticed best when you’re wearing a torch on your chest and swinging your fists around: it looks incredible. Climax Studios has successfully managed to reproduce the defining gritty horror of the series and has brought it all to the smallest screen. The only problem is that the Silent Hill series is the sort of thing that you play alone at night in a dark room with the sound turned up for hours on end (as they recommend before the opening title screen that this game should be played). And most of my PSP gaming happens on a brightly lit bus while I’m trying to ignore screaming children, and screaming adults, come to that.

The best games for the PSP are “pick up and play” ones. The sort where you can make progress, or have a complete game, within 5 minutes, or at most under 10 minutes. The Burnout series is a great example of this. I know that Burnout Legends and Burnout Revenge use pretty much the same engine, and EA didn’t even try to make a pretence about Burnout Dominator (which was shipped under the same name for both PS2 and PSP!) but Burnout is perfect for this sort of thing: there is progress (so something to look forward to on those commutes) but short bursts of gameplay keep it fresh and entertaining and playable in short stretches. The same cannot be said of Dungeon Siege - imagine Diablo on the PSP - that had lots of progress but horrible story, and dialogue and graphics, and…

So far the best PSP game that I’ve had in terms of how addictive and entertaining it is while being able to play in short bursts is Worms Open Warfare 2. Maybe not only because Worms really uses the wide screen that the PSP provides, perhaps because it’s really easy to control and perhaps because it’s a low-tech game (so it doesn’t require development time to be spent on high-detail 3D graphics and animations which would be better spent on improving gameplay and fixing bugs), but this game alone is worth having a PSP for. I was in the middle of a really exciting match today, my third attempt against an enemy team on Hard difficulty setting, and I’d just used the Ninja rope to swing in over the opponent’s last worm and…

My PSP ran out of batteries.

- John

Remember the game that brought the Fantasy RPG to millions? The Diablo series is back, with the endless pointing and clicking and levelling up and hacking and slashing and running back and forth to sell every last low-grade axe you came across?

Diablo 3 Gameplay Trailer here, viewer discretion advised.

There are new gimmicks, such as smashing at broken walls to crush your foes, and really neat new game features, such as massive leaps and much better online support. Although I know many people who played Diablo 2 (myself included) I only know one person who has actually completed it, but it made me break out my old copy and start from scratch again.

Only question is: will they have the Necromancer class? Oh, and the Butcher.

- John

Play ni- ARRRR! FRESH MEAT!

I am one of those who bought a PS3 to play MGS4 on.

One of countless hundreds.

This game was worth the money easily.

The “exclusive” jokes, the awesome sneaking gameplay, the thrill of wondering if the guard walking towards you will see you, the variety of missions in the variety of environments, the dialogue, the humour, the sorrow, the single best Mech fight I’ve ever encountered in a game (MG Rex versus MG Ray) the return to Shadow Moses (Back To The Origin? After all, Only Snake is the True Hero), and the epic boss battles. The sting in the tail ending (these spoilers I won’t reveal) is after the best climax of any game I have ever played.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is an epic end to an epic series. Pour it a pint, it’s done bloody well for itself. Here’s to you Kojima! You went wrong with Raiden but you went right with Meryl. You went wrong with the PS3 exclusive but you went right with the well-timed MGS2 launch. Sony may have denied you the ability to have us switch controllers to fight Mantis, but you burned them for it. I never thought I’d say it but I am truly satisfied - my MGS cravings are completely filled, and you wrapped up the story perfectly. Congratulations - you are a true hero.

- John

john@inx-gaming DOT guess DOT uk

If the phrases “Fox-Die” “Les Enfants Terrible” and “The Patriots” don’t mean anything to you then the chances are that, yes, you have escaped the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo’s malign influence.

For now.

On the 12th of June 2008 we’re about to have a simultaneous world-wide release of the last in a series of games that has influenced, and mobilised, countless world-wide fans. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be unleashed, and we’ll see the return of Liquid Ocelot, Vamp, Meryl, and Otacon. Oh, and Solid Snake. And sadly Raiden. You can put that boy in a ninja suit, give him a HF-Katana, and have him deflect thousands of knives but all I hear when I look at him is him and Rose whining at each other. Metal Gear Solid 2 sparked hilarious fan-boy rage and I’m only one of a very small number who hope that it’s Raiden who shoots himself instead of Snake - we base that hope on the premise that Hideo Kojima released footage of Snake fighting someone before the release of MGS2 and in game it was Raiden who did the fighting.

I know lots of people in games production right now who are planning to buy and who have bought a PS3 to play that game alone. And they’ve taken the 12th and 13th off work to do it. I plan to join them.

So how to warm up your PS3 before Snake Day? Grab a copy of Haze is how!

- John

Only Snake is the True Hero.

Two separate attacks occurred around the time of GTA4’s midnight release that ruined the release of the game. One was an unprovoked stab attack and the other was a vicious weaponless attack in which two men broke a teenager’s nose and jaw to get his copy of the game. Even if two men are prepared to resort to crime to get hold of their copy, I doubt they can justify that level of violence to get hold of it. They can’t. They aren’t men.

It’s tragic that a climate of fear should penetrate our games community, and on behalf of INX I would like to express my support for the victims and condemn such crimes.

If you have any information about the stab attack in Croydon, London (there were 50-100 potential witnesses that night) please report it to the Metropolitan Police (you can do this anonymously).

If you have any information about the robbery in Lancashire please contact the Lancashire Constabulary (again you can do this anonymously).

- John

I’ll admit, at first I was skeptical of Halo 3. I’d played a bit of Halo 2 (both single and multiplayer) and the game seemed to be fundamentally flawed in many ways: Having self-healing armour meant that you had to run off each time you got hurt (each time the fight got started), being able to jump that far meant that you could just hammer the jump button repeatedly and be nearly impossible to hit. The game just felt like an exercise in fight evading acrobatics.

And I felt the same way through the start of Halo 3. Other than sometimes stupefyingly good graphics (some of the scenic shots are even better than the ones we saw in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) and some of the best vehicle-based fighting we’ve seen in an action game (my favourite is a sort of hovercraft called “Ghost”) there was nothing remarkable here, but there were annoying harmless little aliens with annoying squeaky voices, there was a backstory that the game made no attempt to explain (but the manual does, so take note) and there were several pistol weapons that seemed pretty much interchangeable: overall a wholly missable experience.

Suddenly, it changed. In chapter 4 a machine called a “scarab” gets dropped and you have to destroy it by shooting at its joints with rockets (sound remarkably similar to every other boss battle ever made ever? If not it should do), but the difference is now that I was having fun! I was excited and enthused and hooked! Then, in the following chapter, the monsters suddenly went up a notch: they looked scary and suddenly posed a real threat, especially en masse (which is what they were). Halo 3 had gone from being mediocre to being a great gaming experience. The jumping no longer bothered me, the squeaky voiced enemies did return, but much later thankfully, and I was really looking forward to the vehicle sections. I even forgave the game a bug which killed me about 7 times (when you destroy the power source while standing close to it in the Scarabs in chapter 7 there’s about a 30% chance that shrapnel from the exploding power source will knock you out of the edge of the world. Admittedly this is more likely to be Havok’s fault than Bungie’s), as opposed to the bug which I didn’t forgive which prevents the allies from driving cars you’re in, either sensibly or at all.

One of the most common complaints levelled at Halo 3 is a messed up difficulty curve. While I admit that the last chapter is surprisingly easy (and full of damn good buggy-based fun!) compared to the 8th, the game does become increasingly difficult as you play it, and what more do you expect from a difficulty curve?

Halo 3 gave me a load of vehicle and FPS fun, some achievement points, and a desire to play more Halo 3. And what more do you expect from a game?

- John

Play Nice. Finish the Fight.

Crysis is one of those games which PC suppliers look forward to. There’s one game release every year which triggers the games community to rush out and spend all of their hard earned (or for those under 18 kindly donated) cash on a brand new super computer, the likes of which non gamers (I speak of non gamers theoretically since they’re becoming increasingly hard to find) have never seen before, so that they stand around and gaze at the new beast with that unique blend of trepidation and awe which only expensive technology can evince.

The back of the Crysis box states that you need the following to run it on an XP machine (with Vista you need higher specification - these are shown beside XP’s in brackets):

Processor: 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz)
Memory: 1.0 Gb (1.5 Gb)
Hard Disc: 12 Gb (12Gb) - my install was 6.03Gb but then I didn’t install the additional programs on the disc or the French, Czech, and Polish language packs which are ticked by default. When you install this game make sure to uncheck these.
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 6800 GT or greater, ATI 9800 Pro or greater (Radeon X800), 258 Mb.

However, Hellgate London wasn’t available for me to play (the spec of which is closer to my laptop) so I ended up playing Crysis instead on my portable beast which clocks in at:

Processor: 1.66 GHz
Memory: 1.0 Gb
Hard Disc: 60.0 Gb
Graphics card: GeForce Go 7600 128 Mb

So I need to point out that, even on the lowest settings for all of the options, it still churns and rocks and grass are visibly streamed as I approach them (I put this down to my “low” spec laptop not the game). But I will say this: even on the lowest settings, it looks lovely. The HUD comes in four colours, all of which make it look downright sexy, the models are detailed and the textures are among the most detailed that we’ve seen in games. The AI really brings the Korean soldiers to life and makes this open world a really hostile one - when you waltz into a defended area it throws enemies at you relentlessly. The game gives you four different modes to act in (which are accounted for by, believe it or not, your suit): armour mode (where your health recovers), speed mode (where you can zip past enemies), strength mode (where you can leap high into the air), and cloak mode (where you are invisible for a period of time). So it’s a bit like a free-roaming Halo 3 but, thankfully, without the stupid enemies with the annoying voices. But there are limits to the free-roaming - I tried to swim out to a boat in the distance and was promptly fed upon by a beautifully detailed pair of sharks. Ah well.

This isn’t so much of a review since I haven’t completed the game yet, it’s more of a “first impressions”. But I can tell you this: if you have a beast of a gaming rig then you owe it to yourself, and your machine, to buy this. You will be staggered (even my grandma commented on how beautiful the scenery was). Rest assured, I will post a full review when I have completed Crysis.

On my proper gaming rig.

- John

john AT inx-gaming DOT co DOT uk

Sometimes, old games are better than their later sequels. I was trying to play UT3 with a friend recently, and sadly it became obvious that, in some ways, Unreal Tournament 3 just isn’t as good as the original UT was. Here’s why:

1. The multiplayer often doesn’t work out of the box, (and when patched requires port mapping).

While port mapping isn’t a problem to a lot of us, it is to lots of others. You shouldn’t need to be technically adept to be able to play UT online against your friends. Given that the Unreal Tournament franchise was effectively born of fans wanting to play Unreal online this is a real disappointment.

2. Face!

The favourite multiplayer map, Facing Worlds, is making a noticeable non-appearance. UT2004 had two versions of this map, a modern one and the classic one. I refuse to believe that no one on the Epic Level Design team thought “Hey, why don’t we include this level that has always been a favourite among fans and that is simply iconic to a huge chunk of them.” If they thought it they should have said it and if they said it they should have been listened to. While on the subject of levels…

3. Not enough maps

The maps that are included in the box are all great, but you’ll be disappointed if you expect it to compare the volume of maps in the UT GOTY edition. Expecting heaving contribution from the modding community is almost a given, but leaning on them this heavily isn’t giving the gamers enough variety and doesn’t meet the high bar set by earlier games from the UT series.

Don’t get me wrong, UT3 is a great game, but these issues really do stain the game for me. When I’ve made a UT3 Face I’ll be sure to make it publicly available through INX, until then I’ll go and have a go on UT.

- John

Play nice. Play Face.

Lock and load guys!

gamepolitics.com reports that gamers are forming protest groups in order to exert political pressure on developers. I decided to take a look down the list and subject each of them to harsh judgement. Why? Because I do that.

1. Boycotting Battlefield: Bad Company

Sarcastic Gamer are calling for a boycott of Battlefield: Bad Company on the basis that Electronic Arts plan to sell extra weapons over XBox Live. Selling extra content for games isn’t new (enough people raged when it was done with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), but it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out. At the time of writing over 540 people have responded, almost all saying that they won’t shell out for it.

It’s worth noting that, when you have convinced someone who has bought every previous incarnation of a game not to buy your latest one, you have clearly gone very badly wrong somewhere along the line.

2. Boycotting Rockband

Not a happy day for EA - UK gamers are furious at the £180 price tag on the full kit of Rockband (in the US it’d cost about £85). This price hike seems difficult to justify, and no one from EA has yet attempted to.

3. Missing Replacement XBox 360

It’s difficult to encourage people to boycott a console that they’ve shelled out hundreds of pounds for and fortunately the consumerist aren’t trying to do that. But they are rightly drawing attention to a case of Microsoft being sloppy - in this instance they didn’t send a replacement XBox but did send an invalid tracking number for a package that never arrived. In the consumerist’s latest article they recommend that the complainant take the matter to the small complaints court.

It’s important that as consumers we look out for our own interests. Fanboy rage, no matter how impotent it may seem, is important and does get heard. If you have a complaint against a video game company do write to them, and if they ignore you do write to the consumerist, sarcastic gamer, gamesindustry.biz gamepolitics.com, or us! If you want to get heard by other gamers and members of the games industry just kick up a fuss on our forums.

John

john@inx-gaming.co.uk

Play nice. After all, it’s your money.