Vidzone

Yesterday the Vidzone service launched on PS3. It’s a competent music video service but it could definitely do with some improvement. I'm not going to completely shit on Vidzone as I'm sure it will improve over time and refine things but I'm just going to outline a few things that disappointed me with my first use.

First off, the time it takes to start up the application is too long and moves the service from being a way to just quickly watch videos to an arduous process waiting for the service to load and finding the videos you want to watch.

The UI as it stands now is not great and makes navigation difficult and too time consuming. It’s visually nice to look at and appealing but the functionality isn't great. The search takes too long to use and the keyboard system is terrible, it would have been better to use the PS3 keyboard to enter information. Simple things like a “more from this artist” option or a better recommendation system would make it more fun to use and more useful.

All of the videos play in 4:3 so even if the video was filmed in widescreen it will play in a letterbox within the 4:3 box so sometimes you can be left with a video playing in the middle of your screen with huge amounts of unused space surrounding it. The quality of the videos aren't mind-blowing either but when you consider the fact that all of these videos have to be instantly streamable it makes sense. It would be nice to have some sort of HD stream option though if your internet connection can handle it. It kind of reduces the need to use the service altogether if the videos don't look great in fullscreen mode.

The homepage when you first open Vidzone is where I see the most potential and exciting features. I like the idea of new playlists and features showing up on the homepage whenever you open it. For instance there is a a playlist for Kasabian’s hits on the front page and one for music from the 80’s. If they keep doing things like this and update it regularly to make it more like an on demand music channel I will probably visit often to see what's new and leave it playing in the background.

Apart from that there’s nothing that would make me want to chose Vidzone over watching music videos on YouTube using the built in internet browser especially when the videos are around the same quality and it’s arguably faster to not Vidzone. That said, I look forward to seeing how the service can evolve and improve over time.

“Last Year’s Model”

This is easily one of the best game trailers I have seen come out of E3.

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Video Games | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | E3 09: Snow Barrens Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Save me Elika

Prince of Persia is too easy. I’ve heard this statement made many times on various podcasts and forums but I strongly disagree with this common view. Prince of Persia was made with accessibility in mind and the experience is much better because of it.

One of the complaints I always hear is "You Can't Die". You can die; you just aren’t seeing a death animation and a game over screen. Getting saved by Elika is just another form of the game over screen without reloading and replaying large sections over and over and making the game way more frustrating than it has to be. It also allows the player to experiment and attempt crazy jumps and things that you would be apprehensive about trying if there was a serious threat of death. However, I do agree that there could be some kind of death penalty for failing in combat though but the regenerative health for bosses is a good enough disadvantage for the player. Without a serious punishment for dying there isn’t a sense of danger or urgency while fighting. The less serious penalty for failing in combat is just a longer battle, which can end up being annoying when a battle goes on way longer than you have the patience for. The main draw for me was the exploration and the story (yes, i really enjoyed the POP story) and if this was a way for less skilled gamers to get the chance to experience all that and still have a good time, so be it.

The Bourne Conspiracy

The main gameplay of The Bourne Conspiracy can be split into two different mechanics, there’s the hand to hand combat which plays out like a basic 2D fighter and the 3rd person shooting. There’s also a driving section that goes on for way too long and isn’t very fun. Overall The Bourne Conspiracy isn’t a bad game though, while nothing about it stands out as revolutionary it does what it does competently.

There were a few design choices that tainted the overall experience for me though. The fact that you have to manually pull out your gun to shoot enemies is odd when games like Uncharted seamlessly move from combat to flatforming without a need to manually initiate combat. After playing the Wanted demo I can appreciate how important it is to be able to easily move between cover points and helped me realise that the cover system in The Bourne Conspiracy isn’t very good. Moving into cover can be too finicky and I often found myself left in the line of fire trying to get into cover. Some kind of quick move from one cover point to another like in Wanted would have been helpful rather than leaving cover to slowly lumber/ uncontrollably sprint to another cover point. The shooting doesn’t do anything special but it works well. The game relies heavily on QTE’s in cutscenes and during fights but I didn’t really have a problem with it but that could be because I don’t have a problem with QTE’s in general.

I found the hand to hand combat sections the most interesting and some of the most memorable moments came from the epic boss battle fights. The combat looks good with cool enviromental takedowns but gets repetitive because you don’t unlock any extra combos over the course of the game. You could argue that it makes sense because the game takes place over different time periods so you wouldn’t become progressively stronger but it would be nice if combat was more rewarding and got progressively more interesting. The fighting is fun but the lack of moves and variety makes it get old quickly.

Overall I would say that The Bourne Conspiracy is worth a rental at least, it won’t do anything that will blow your socks off but the production values are high and it’s a fun experience that’s worth playing.

My Life Told Through Games Part 2

The next gaming machine I remember getting was the Gameboy Colour. I’m sure most people got a Gameboy to play Pokémon and I did the same. I, like many others, was swept away in Pokémon-mania which involved watching the anime, trading Pokémon cards and (for me) reading the Pokémon magazine. Pokémon was my first RPG experience and probably the first game I requested and owned all to myself. I recently stumbled into a conversation with some people in my Biology class that involved childhood memories and naturally Pokémon came up. I was surprised to learn that I was the only person that hadn’t actually finished Pokémon. There was always a point in Pokémon games where I would just give up either because there I battle I just couldn’t get past or I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do. I rarely finished games when I was younger and would just give up when the going got tough and played something else whereas now I would take a lot more to stop me playing a game altogether. My Gameboy pretty much served as the “Pokémon Machine” since I don’t remember getting much else.

I remember getting a PSone (the smaller version of the first Playstation) just as the Playstation 2 came out so it’s fair to say I was behind the curb and didn’t really know much about the gaming culture as a whole. At this point in time my twin cousins were living with my family and they were way bigger gamers than I was. Their arrival is probably what sparked a higher interest in games for me. They collected gaming magazines and were on top of things when it came to gaming. They bought the Playstation 2 when it came out and I think they bought Gameboy Advances at launch too. I was probably 10ish or something during this period and I’m guessing they were around 18ish. Most of my early serious gaming moments were experienced through my older cousins because if they weren’t around I doubt I would have gone out of my way to acquire any of those consoles. The first game I played on PS2 was Dead or Alive 2. I wasn’t blown away by the graphics or anything but that could be because I didn’t really have much to compare it with. I was actually a big fan of Dead or Alive and played it quite a bit but would always get my arse kicked by my older cousins. Button mashing FTL. Other notable “first times” with my cousins include the first time I saw Onimusha. I didn’t play though because I found it too intimidating but I enjoyed watching the cool battles as a kid. Seeing Timesplitters, SSX, Red Faction, Metal Gear and others slowly elevated my interest in games, shaping me. Eventually my cousins had to move away but they left me with more knowledge about games.

Shortly after my cousins left I started buying gaming magazines since my primary source of knowledge had left. The first magazine I bought exclusively was GamesMaster. I probably wouldn’t get a magazine like that nowadays but it was sufficient back then. After growing out of GamesMaster I started getting PSM2 (now PSM3) which was about PS2 and PSP at the time. My love for PSM is probably what made me get a Playstation 3 in the end just out of loyalty to my favourite magazine (I was young and naive). Reading PSM2 on a monthly basis and going on gaming websites helped me stay in the know and I really enjoyed reading the magazines even when they were outdated. I'm not really sure what happened to bridge the gap between how I was then and how I am now but I'm sure the transition had something to do with my discovery of gaming podcasts.

The first batch of gaming related podcasts I listened to were Gamespot's The Hotspot and the Gamespot UK Podcast. However, my subscription to Gamespot UK was short lived but I enjoyed listening to The Hotspot in it's hayday. I started listening to 1up Yours a while after subscribing to my first batch of gaming podcasts. I actually found a post on Neogaf that words how I feel about 1up Yours pretty well. “The only reason I'm a member of this board is because of 1up Yours. I just want to thank you guys for opening my eyes to our whole culture, letting me know that thinking the way I do about games is cool, and I am by no means alone. The last few years has been an unforgettable experience, and I'm just sad to see it end.” 1up yours helped me see the bigger world of gaming and connected me to the wider community of gamers. With 1up Yours came countless other podcasts and insights which I have posted about before so I wont go into it too much but what I'm trying to say is that by listening to people like Shawn Elliot on CGW/GFW Radio and watching the guys on the 1up Show helped me see and think about games in a different light and made me realise how influential they have been on my life even if I haven't been able to properly articulate that with these posts.

I think that pretty much brings us up to date. I play a lot more games myself now rather than watching other people play them for me and I avidly follow websites like Kotaku and Joystiq for any piece of gaming news I can get. I felt a bit lost after the 1up-pocalypse and even wanted to give up on the whole gaming thing. It hit me really hard for some reason, probably because I was really inspired by the people there but what they did next proved why I looked up to them so much. The 1up FM guys started a new podcast called Rebel FM at www.eat-sleep-game.com which managed to get to no.1 on the iTunes overall podcast chart, Ryan Scott and crew are over at www.geekbox.net with Geekbox Radio and the 1up Show guys have started up a new company at www.area5.tv which will produce their new show “CO-OP” . I hope my experiences and thoughts on games keep evolving and changing and that I keep having fun playing games so maybe in a few years time I can do another post like this and see how much I've changed.

My Life Told Through Games Part 1

I didn’t like playing games as a child. In fact if anything I was scared of them. That said I do remember playing some pretty questionable games as a kid which may have contributed to my lack of enthusiasm. Some of the earliest games I remember playing were actually on PC because I didn't have a console till later in my life. One of the first games I can recall playing was educational and had something to do with spelling, grammar and magic. I can’t really remember but I think it was a sprite based 2D platformer that involved strange looking kids (i remember that there was a choice between a boy character and a girl character) and using magical spells to defeat worms and talking books. My memory is sketchy but if this is how the game actually was its understandable that I hated it. Not a great first experience with games.

I had a better experience with a game called “Secret Agent Sam” which my Dad was a big fan of. I remember it being really challenging and it was pretty much all I played as a 5 year old. I might actually download it and give it another try at http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/124 to see if i still find it as difficult as I did then. So instead of playing Mario I was on a crappy PC playing Secret Agent Sam and some weird educational magic game.

The next stage in my weird gaming history involved playing lots of demos over and over again on my dad’s computer. I think my Dad used to get PC magazines which came with demo disks that became my only source of games. One that stands out for me was a little user made game that won a competition and was made available for free in the magazine. I don’t remember the title but it had a knight trying to save a princess from giant ants. Again, sketchy memory so this may not be true. What is a definite fact though is that I was terrified of it and couldn't even stand to play it. I used to seize up when I tried. In fact I had to watch my younger sister finish it cause I couldn't. Looking back, that game is probably the source of my fear of anything with more than four legs.

My Dad had a whole box full of floppies like this with weird little DOS games on them. I seem to remember watching a lot of games being played rather than actually playing them myself due to my weird fear of them. Some games that come to mind are an RTS set in World War 2, Tomb Raider, one where you were a guy that went back in time to fight tigers, Syphon Filter, Max Payne and Metal Gear Solid. I'm sure there were others too.

The first console I got was the Sega Mega Drive. I don’t even know why I got it cause I didn't ask for it and I wasn't really interested in it. I didn't even know it existed prior to getting it. Looking back, playing on my Mega Drive probably would have been beneficial to my gaming history but as it stands I have a huge Mega Drive shaped hole in my gaming knowledge that is slowly being filled up by the Retronauts podcast.

I think we sold it in the end due to neglect.

COMING UP: Getting a PlayStation, Gameboy memories, Gaming Magazines and more…

My Time As A Sackboy

I didn’t really know what to expect from LBP when I put the disk in my system and previously just had a “meh…” feeling about the game. I didn't see anything from it that made me want to play and I got the general impression from videos and discussions on podcasts that the game excels on the creation side but the standard gameplay wouldn't be enough to keep me playing. However, after playing it for a while I think it’s fair to say that the platforming offers just as much enjoyment as the creation tools so uncreative types like me shouldn't have have any problem ignoring the Create part of the “Play.Create.Share” equation.

You start off the game with a few tutorials narrated by Stephen Fry teaching you about the basics of the game. The first half hour or so is actually quite a funnelled experience because if I recall correctly you're forced into playing a few story levels before having the ability to play with friends or check out the community levels. This isn't necessarily a negative point though because the story levels are really well made and sparks creative ideas and shows you how imaginative and crazy you can be with the creation tools.

The controls are somewhat unconventional for a 2D platformer in that the movement and jumping of your sackboy or girl is based on physics. This means it can sometimes be hard to make precise jumps without falling off edges and suffering unfair deaths. It would be nice if there was some sort of way to use the grab button to climb up ledges and stuff. It’s easy to get sucked into the charm of LBP and find yourself gleefully smiling when you play through a really good level. I think the game is really fun when playing with other people and my first stand out “This game is awesome” moment was the first time I jumped into a few levels with a friend. Even comparing how someone else has decorated their pod or sackboy can be fun. I haven't seen any two sackpeople that look exactly the same and the customisation options are so vast that injecting elements of your personality into your sackboy is easy.

I've only spent about half an hour messing around with the level editor and in that time I learnt that creating a playable level would take ages and a lot of effort. Seeing how complicated and expansive the creation tools are makes you appreciate how long it probably took to make the top tier community levels. To sum up LBP is pretty cool and you should definitely give it a try even if you have a negative opinion going in.