Electric Bandits
UK Tech Blog - Gaming, Computing, Gadgets, Mobiles, Audio

Gamers should expect a dearth of games during the post-Christmas drought. It’s a perfect time to check out some of the year’s best games that you’ve never heard of.

Why play indie games?

1. they are often quirky
2. they aren’t developed by a marketing team
3. they are labors of love
4. they offer a fresh perspective
5. they are usually free

My personal pick from 2007 is undoubtedly Desktop Tower Defense. It’s genius in its simplicity, nipping at the heels of puzzle stalwarts like Tetris. Yeah, it’s that good. Play it for a few hours till you can beat it on it’s toughest difficulty level and then wonder why you spent £40 on games that are far less fun.

My ten year old cousin introduced me to DTD - a humbling moment in my life as a games journalist. You are given an array of towers which you must use to stop two unending streams of critters from passing from one end of the screen to the next. The towers themselves shoot different ammo at different speeds, and cost different amounts. You must arrange the towers strategically to slow and eventually exterminate the threat. Very fun, if the high-pitched dying squeals of the bugs don’t drive you insane.

While you’re at it, check out the Indie Games Blog, an excellent source for new independent games.

So now video games are going to keep kids from getting obese. I can never keep track of these reactionary blowhards.

Five schools in Worcestershire have already trialled a project aimed at children who consistently missed PE lessons.

Whoa. They missed PE? Whatever happened to punishment? When I was a kid, if I missed a class, even PE, I’d spend my lunch hour writing Bible verses and then get smacked around a bit for good measure when I got home.

The scheme has already won an award from the Youth Sports Trust for its contribution in increasing participation in physical activity, leading to the possibility other schools may follow.

Great, so now school administrators are patting themselves on the back for blowing thousands of pounds on something that could have just as easily been done with a little discipline. I’m about as fanatic a Wii apologist as you’re likely to find, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to endorse video games as a direct substitute for physical exercise. The intensity just isn’t there, and these administrators should be embarrassed that they had to resort to such a harebrained scheme to get kids to shed the pounds.

Chances are, if your little butterball is unwilling to attend PE in the first place, a few flicks of the wrist are not going to help, unless those flicks come from the wrist of a mother, smacking her child in the face for being so lazy.*

*Electric Bandits does not encourage or endorse physical child abuse.

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Not a whole heck of a lot coming out next week. I can’t believe that the Chessmaster franchise is still going strong. I had a copy of Chessmaster 3000 for the NES, which featured a grizzled old man with a chip on his shoulder who would insult you when you made a stupid move. Real motivating for a kid, that one.

Rez and Puzzle Quest are dearly loved by critics but not so much by the public. It’s interesting how developers are reinventing these unsung classics, hoping to capture enthusiasm from a new generation of gamers. Hey, it worked for Grand Theft Auto. A few second-tier RPGs, sims, and sports titles round out the week’s selection. I’m having a tough time coming to grips with a darts game for the Nintendo DS, it just seems sorta cheap, like how you would play Duck Hunt with the gun touching the TV screen. Admit it, everyone did that.

Not the strongest week of releases, but you have to applaud the diversity of gameplay experiences. Here’s to developers, who can make cleaning up a giraffe’s crap and even darts fun.

Wednesday
Xbox 360: Chessmaster Live
Xbox 360: Rez HD

Friday
Wii: Bomberman Land
Wii: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Xbox 360: Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
PC: Lineage II - The Kamael
PC: The Sims 2: Castaway Stories
DS: PDC World Chapionship Darts 2008
PSP: FlatOut: Head On
DS: Zoo Hospital

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You guys! One of the few games that makes me wish I had a PS2 is being released for the Wii in the UK in late March. Awesome! May a thousand critics once again grab their pens and furiously write “Games are art!” all over the internet (Dudes, a stylistic design does not make it art, just sayin’).

When the award-winning Okami came out last year, the general press consensus was, “Why is this not coming out for the Wii, where the control scheme would fit the paintbrush mechanics perfectly?” Capcom Europe initially denied that they were planning a Wii port, and has remained characteristically quiet on the subject, preferring to allow the game to speak for itself.

Fortunately, Ready at Dawn studios has been charged with bringing the title to the Wii in the stead of now-defunct original developer, Cloverfield Studios. This, along with No More Heroes, is infusing the spring season with plenty of insane Japanesery.

Loosely based on Japanese mythology, Okami stars a wolf goddess on a quest to restore her land to its former glory by removing an ancient curse with a celestial paintbrush. It has been praised for its “water color” graphical style and unique asian imagery that evokes a fantastical version of feudal Japan. Can’t wait.

Like a phoenix’s neglected stepchild, Gizmondo has lurched away from the ashes. Reborn for a new generation of nonexistent open source gaming enthusiasts, the handheld will focus on user generated content and the “democratisation of gaming”. Cripe. When will this guy learn that people just want to play games, not make a cultural statement. No 10-year old kid wants gaming 2.0. UK firm Plextex will be working with Gizmondo head Carl Freer to bring the game back to market.

Plextex’s director tells popular tech blog Gizmodo (don’t get it twisted), “…the only reason Gizmondo was not a success last time round was because it was not fully brought into the market.”

Wow. Defying the most basic laws of marketing, they have decided to bring their reviled monster back to life. You have to admire their tenacity of not their blind ambition. Well, good luck with all that.

For those of you who don’t recognize, let me drop some science:

Gizmondo was a handheld gaming platform that was the laughing stock of the games industry, even moreso than the N-gage, if you can believe it. It sold poorly and its manufacturer, Tiger Telematics went bankrupt. All of this was overshadowed by Swedish playboy and Gizmondo exec Stefan “Fat Steve “Eriksson’s ties with organized crime. His highly publicized and deliciously symbolic car crash, which involved wrapping a $1m Enzo around a pole at nearly 200 mph, and subsequent shenanigans (drug use, embezzlement, drunk driving, grand theft auto, and assorted weapons charges) didn’t help matters.

The device included GPS functionality, video and audio playback instant messaging through Vodafone, and an advertising platform in addition to its ability to play games. Compared to the sleek DS and PSP, the thing is about as graceful as a can of kidney beans. Released in the UK in 2005, the unit was initially priced at £229.

Still not convinced that it’s going to flop again? Exclusives include Momma, Can I Mow the Lawn? and Johnny Whatever, in which the player attempts to free a Princess from a vat of mustard. You can’t make this up.

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Last week we reported the UK’s biggest game publisher’s financial woes. Time for background and follow-up on this convoluted saga.

In April 2005, a small but feisty SCi, gaining exposure for its financial reliability and strong management takes over megapublisher Eidos Interactive. Within the next two months, Eidos released Hitman: Blood Money and Tomb Raider Legend to decent reviews and expected profits of £23 million. Things were looking good.

The following year saw no high-profile releases, and SCi announced losses of £2.5 million. However, games tend to run on a two-year development cycle, so shareholders expected 2007 to put SCi back on the map. Unfortunately, several games were delayed across multiple platforms, prolonging the company’s debt. Losses eventually rose to £19 million.

Analysts argue that SCi relied too much on their top franchises such as Tomb Raider and Hitman. In a world where Brain Age dominates the charts, publishers can no longer rely on big names for their bread and butter. While other developers embraced the Wii, DS, and cell phones in an attempt to reach the casual market, SCi poured all their time and resources into a few games. They failed to diversify.

Another big problem was the management’s inability to transition from a small UK publisher to a global media conglomerate. The company’s staff skyrocketed to 700 (from a mere 100) overnight. SCi’s management experienced growing pains, and perhaps were unable to respond to market shifts as quickly as they could have if their growth had been less explosive.

The flailing company recieved a shot in the arm from several investors including Warner (yes, that Warner), who bought a 10% share. Yet by January 11, share prices declined when rumours of a total buyout ceased. This, coupled with massive profit losses triggered rioting among SCi’s shareholders, who soon began demanding for the management team’s resignation, undoubtedly armed with torches and pitchforks.

Meanwhile, it was rumoured that SCi would be forced to borrow £30 million to get them through 2008. By this time, stocks had declined a crushing 50%. On January 18, CEO Jane Cavenagh, MD of Publishing Bill Enis, and MD of Studios Rob Murphy announced their collective resignation. CFO Phil Rogers took over as CEO, having worked for SCi less than a year.

At this low point, analysts had dubbed SCi the “Northern Rock” of games. However, upon the management shakeup, stock prices shot up 60%, which brings us up to today. Warner is poised for a complete takeover, though other companies have expressed buyout interests.

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Are we still having this conversation? In 2008?

Times columnist Janice Turner has penned a smarmy indictment of video games, comparing the pasttime to hardcore illegal drug use.

Comparing Xbox to crack is about as constructive as comparing any politician to Hitler. It’s just silly and makes me immediately write off your position as inflammatory, pandering and desperately out-of-touch with reality. Jan, I understand that the exaggerated prose is tounge-in-cheek, but you’re still writing off an entire medium so that you can provide a counterpoint to your approval of television. Why you gotta hate?

In one breath, she defends games, and in another, condemns them:

Whereas I use my computer as little more than a typewriter that can order groceries, they have figured out how to record music, edit photos, play chess, make stupid webcam films of themselves pretending to be Ant’n'Dec, download embarrassing (to their parents) rock like Metallica, print jam-jar labels, correspond with a godmother in Australia and do stop-start animation with Plasticine men.

Great! She understand that technology allows kids to create their own worlds, solve problems, develop critical thinking skills, strategize, imagine, etc. And then, this:

…unlike the TV-hating parents, I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s. These are Satan’s Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators’ brains. And they play them - beepety-beep - on journeys, over family meals, any minute in which they find themselves unamused.

Not since last week’s “virtual orgasmic rape” incident have we seen such lazy parenting/journalism. Your opinion is as relevant as theater buffs who condemned film and classical nerds who decried rock and roll. Your derision will be forgotten and tomorrow’s critics will laugh at your shortsightedness.

Also, Satan’s Sudoku sounds like an awesome game.

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Video Games Live, now entering its fourth year, is a traveling orchestra which specializes in reworked classical versions of popular video game tunes. Its repertoire includes classics from Pong all the way up to Bioshock. Even Starcraft II, which probably won’t even be released for a year or more, is represented.

So why is this big news for the UK? The tour stops in Glasgow and London, of course. The actual dates have yet to be announced, but VGL has confirmed both concerts.

What strikes me as most interesting about these arrangements is the way that they transform simplistic 4-bit tunes from Tetris and Super Mario Bros. into epic, intricate suites. Because the original composers worked with such primitive audio technology, they were forced to limit their music to simple, often monophonic melodies. Chords and multiple parts were out of the question. But have you listened to some of those old melodies? The theme from NARC rips! Just ask the Pixies.

By limiting themselves to basic melodies, these composers crafted insanely catchy songs. Who can’t whistle the Mario theme? The genius of these composition is really unearthed when given the chance to shine through a massive orchestral interpolation.

Two cool supplemental features offered by VGL are real-time soundtracks to Frogger and Space Invaders. Audience members are randomly selected to play the games while the orchestra provides a unique soundtrack, dependent upon the players’ performances. In Space Invaders, the players actually run back and forth on a track to move the spaceship left and right. Awesome!

Just one question: How are they going to pull off Guitar Hero?

Check out Video Games Live for more info. Best keep a close eye on the site, as these concerts tend to sell out super quick.

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The trouble with Star Wars is that I love it. I’ll always love it. No matter what rubbish movie Lucas pushes out, I’ll be first in line. At the cinema and for the inevitable dvd. It doesn’t matter that previous Star Wars games have been rushed, their controls muggy with sub-par graphics. I’ll still play them. I’ve been burnt so many times. But every time a new one comes along they go on about how this time its different. This time all my Star Wars dreams are gonna come true. This time I will truly know what it is to be a Jedi. Am I excited? You bet.
This brings me to LucasArts new game: Star Wars, the Force Unleashed. Sense should tell me that this game might not be that great, but that small boy in me is chomping at the bit to get his grubby hands on it. With the movies long dusted, and information on the TV series spin-off thin on the ground, the Force Unleashed occupies a front row space no other Star Wars game has done before. It doesn’t have to compete with a gargantuan Star Wars film. But this alone cannot carry a game. So the clever chaps at Lucas Arts have some very nifty tech up their sleeves to make the Force Unleashed a spectacular debut on the now current gen consoles.
Cast as a secret apprentice of Darth Vader your job is to rid the galaxy of the now fleeing Jedi. Your mission is so secret that the Emperor himself is not to know of your dastardly deeds, hence why pictures have shown you doing away with Storm Troopers. Although why it has to kept secret is beyond me. Lucas Arts are touting a never before seen interaction with force powers as your primary weapon. This alone is exciting stuff, but it has all been promised before.
And herein lies the trouble of being a Star Wars fan. Sometimes these games do reach for greatness and surpass anything that has gone before. They are however rare, but they do happen! Lets hope this is one of those times.
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