A different style

Hey guys,

so a while back i applied to write for gamepeople.co.uk, a website that writes about games in a more anecdotal fashion over commenting on content. They asked me to write a few reviews to see if it would work out (in the end it didn't, but it took them 3 months to tell me they weren't really looking for writers). Here's one of the reviews I wrote, im just posting it as a curiosity to show a different writing style, enjoy!

Demon's Souls review by Dilarus

for gamepeople.co.uk

“Right, time to be a hero” I told myself, starting up Demon's Souls. I'd heard from everyone who came into contact with the game that it was tough as a concrete codpiece, but that was just more enticing to a hardcore gamer like me. The first thing that was difficult was making a Female character that didn't look like a Neanderthal. Nose bridge depth, tip angle, width and height are just some of the things to choose from when editing the nose alone, there's gotta be over two hundred facial features to tweak and I'm no expert. Settling for something unisex with long eyelashes I made a mental note to wear a helmet with the visor closed.

Choosing the Temple Knight as a class, due to its high defence and healing magic, I started my quest in the training area. Via ingame messages left on the floor like the scrawlings in your local public restroom I was taught the buttons for dash, block, heavy and light attacks and was soon slaying skeleton soldiers left right and centre. There's a knack to the combat, you have to watch your opponent carefully and strike at the right moment. Swinging a weapon uses stamina that you use to block and sprint so if you use it all up the enemy's attack will stun you, leaving you open to more brutal punishment. If I'm honest I picked up the combat quickly and found it interesting and not too challenging, “most people don't like to think when playing games so that's why they found it hard”, I thought to myself.

By the end of the tutorial I was eating those words as I entered a room with a gigantic ogre that turned me into a crimson smear on the flagstones. When I awoke I was addressed by a lady clad in black robes and some kind of wax all over her face like really bad conjunctivitis. She told me I was dead and that whenever I died I would be taken to the Nexus, which acts as a world hub. What I was not told however is that I would have to clear the first world as a spectre with half my maximum health.

From then on things got interesting, more often I read the messages players would leave around the levels, warning of danger, they were helpful and allowed  me to prepare. Preparedness counts for nothing, however, if you can't fight effectively so I would creep around areas, stealthly stabbing unsuspecting enemies in the back and robbing their corpses. A couple of times I was ripped apart by rabid wolves or reduced to a puddle of molten chainmail by a dragon performing strafing runs, but after some farming I was a force to be reckoned with. Undead bodies shattered against my shield and ghoulish possessed armour was as nothing against my enchanted blade when suddenly the game thought “f**k this” and had me trodden on by a twenty foot tall armour clad behemoth.

Demon's Souls revels in ruining your day. It gives you the opportunity to craft a brilliant fighter 'gainst whom the forces of evil break like waves then whips the rug out from underneath you and watches you meekly retrace your steps with more than a little humility. It was when I started being a total bastard that I was let in on the joke. Taking advantage of the fantastic pseudo-online capabilities, I forced myself into another player's game and tracked him down like an animal. You see when you die you have three choices available to you. Firstly you can reach the point where you died to regain your lost souls, then defeat the boss and get your body back. Secondly, you can turn into a Blue phantom and aid another player in their world and get your body back. Finally, you may choose, like I did, to become an infamous Black phantom and ruin someone else's day whilst simultaneously stealing half their souls and getting your body back.

Now, I'm not mean spirited exactly, but if given the chance to vent my anger on a hero as brave and bold as I once was I'd gladly take him down a notch to satiate my displeasure. Following the trend of storming through levels and hitting the brick wall of the boss monsters, broken up by stints of gleeful mischief, I made it through to the end of the game. Admittedly I summoned a few blue phantoms to distract the bigger adversaries whilst I hacked away at the back of their legs. At the end of the game you're given the age-old choice of saving the world or enslaving it, and i'm proud to say I saved it. Whether this was in repentance of all the bad things I did on the way to the top or to be sure that no hero could rise to overthrow me I cannot say.

Demon's Souls was a real challenge and I'm really glad I saw it through to the end. There were times I'd be seriously ticked off after being killed by the impossibly tough bosses, but luckily there was a steady stream of other players I could vent my frustrations on, who were quick to tell me what they thought of me via private messages.

casual games (again)

Now i may actually have something positive to say about casual games, I'm not saying my last post was erroneous, but i HAVE discovered that casual games have more uses than just pumping money into the industry and acting as a good pool to try new game ideas. So stick with me

Now, i've been trying to think of good subjects for games articles, i want to learn more about gaming in a serious way and think i need to relay a bit about what i learn to you, you may learn a think or two and i just know it will make you a better gamer (unless you already know this stuff as ur higher on the ladder than me, in which case, fuck it, this is revision)

Upon writing my "why i hate casual games"blog post i wanted to find something positive to say (not because i was going to force myself to or in the interest of fairness, but because there was definitely something there i couldnt quite grasp) and i came up with the following.

I play a vast number of games from all genres (except sports, heck i played the quidditch world cup game in uni for longer than i played fifa in the past 5 years) and as a veteran gamer (shut up, i can call myself that) i find it incredibly easy to pick up and play a game, no matter what it may be. I don't have to look at the controller to confirm im pressing the correct button, and for the most part it's like the controller isn't even there, and i'm playing the game with my mind. Do you drive? well then i'm guessing you don't need to look to see what gear you're in as you can operatie the car by feel alone. This is an example of the conditioning we all recieve through gaming.

There is a reason why all first person shooters use dual analogue sticks or the wasd keys on a keyboard - theyr'e the best possible configurations with the hardware available to us. Every gamer who plays often knows exactly how to hold a controller or where to place his fingers, likewise most gamers can predict where a jump button will be for a platformer, which button fires the gun or simple stuff like which buttons will be used to navigate menus

***A quick aside here on that issue. Westerners tend to use the X button on a playstation pad as the OK button and circle as the cancel button, this is because we naturally asssume that the ok button will be the one closest to the bottom, but the face buttons on a playstation have actual meanings. The playstation's triangle, circle, X and square buttons were created in japan and like our "tick" or "check" mark for positive and "cross" for negative (think of a teacher marking a test paper) the japanese have a system. The thing is that instead of check and cross, they use a "circle" for positive and a "cross" for negative so that's why in japanese-made games like the metal gear solid series and final fantasy 7, the circle button is used as the OK button. As we don't use that method we assumed they meant nothing so made our own rules, and are occasionally thrown by games that use japan's system***

Similarly, a seasoned gamer can take a look at any given game's HUD (heads-up display) and guess what most of the symbols mean. Most of the time(and in no particular order) there's a compass or map, a health bar and magic bar, a stance indicator, an ammo indicator, arrows pointing to objectives, the screennames of other players, a chat log, a score indicator, a leaderboard, a position indicator (for racing games), a speed counter, status indicators or for other games on-screen effects to show your character's current state like blood on the screento show you are wounded and need to get to safety.

My point is, these things are learned and built into a gamer through experience but actuually may have taken me many years to learn. Right now i find it an alien concept to pick up even the simplest of games and not know what to do or what the symbols and numbers mean. It is here that i think back on simpler days when i would play sonic games and all i needed to know was how many rings i had and how many lives were remaining.

It seems obvious that HUDs today are much more cluttered and complex than years ago, with some exceptions of course where the designers make an effort to simplify. If a new player were to be thrown into a first person shooter today without this inbuilt conditioning, the game's ins and outs might as well be in a different language, it is here that casual games that are generally simpler shine.

You see, a casual game is usually centered around performing one particular task, be it repelling zombies orknocking down structures. By offering more straightforward objectives, less gameplay mechanics need to be explained, so if the only thing constantly onscreen at a given time is a score counter, it won't be long before a new gamer can recognize one in another title and know what the game requires. Other examples are simple things like a health bar or a timer that tell the player that there will be conflict or that speed will be required, once gamers have been exposed to game mechanics in steady bite-sized chunks they will build a repertoire of videogame knowledge that they can apply to other titles

Whilst for me it was games on the megadrive/genesis today's gamers often have to begin with the relative complexity of a dozen-buttoned controller with knobs on instead of one with just a d-pad and three buttons. It's understandable why people prefer casual games on things like the iphone (which can customize the number of buttons needed or remove them entirely for swipes and tilt) it's because they're simpler, more approachable. As someone (i forget who) once said, a controller might as well be the control board for a jumbo jet for all it means to a new gamer.

So i admit i was wrong to think casual games weren't as important for hardcore gamers, the thing was that what they had to teach i ALREADY knew, so it all seems so backwards and pointless to me.

My point still stands tho, they may be wonderful for getting people to lnow more about game mechanice, but they still PISS ME OFF if it's all you want to play! come on, you accidentally learned a lot about gaming, why not use that knowledge to experience something monumental? I can see people using the judgment for trajectory they learn through angry birds for a serious game of worms, just replace the birds with grenades and the pigs with a rival team who throw 'em back

-On a personal note-
I'm glad i figured this out, it reminds me i still have an introspective mind and can learn about gaming without prompting, i wasn't actively seeking to learn this. It all started when the guy from extra credits mentioned that gamers know the best way to hold a controller and i took it from there. Maybe i have what it takes to write a videogame commentary, but i still have a long way to go, one day im gonna have to read those academic books on videogames (shame theyre like university books so cost 30-60 pounds each)

there are a great deal of topics id like to touch on, the thing is coming up with an appropriate angle.

Unemployment, battlefield & the PSP

Hello once more,
So recently i have become unemployed (you know me, work's just too much effort) so now the government is going to be giving me benefits. i have become my enemy! waah!

Ok too dramatic, think on the positive side, more time to play games! so thats what ive been doing, that and looking on the jobcentre's website for positions nearby and big shock! theres feck all. im not qualified for management, not built for construction, and too grumpy for care work. Id love to work with videogames so im gonna hold out for that or at least a job that wont fill me with murderous rage! (im looking at you, supermarkets)

And thus the games began, and it was good, i've been playing a lot on my psp but first i would like to give mention to the Vietnam addition to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 by Dice, a company owned by EA games. Now not many people will have played Bad company 2 (BC2) as roughly 90% of the population haven't heard of any shooting game not in the "call of duty" series. Call of duty is good but people, it is NOT the only game out there, broaden your minds. Playing only call of duty is like only eating chicken, its not bad but how do you not get sick of it?

the battlefield series goes back to battlefield: 1942 on the PC in 2002 (not to be confused with battlefield 1943 for the xbox 360 and ps3 or battlefield 2142 for the pc) the series has always focused on online multiplayer on large scale maps with a balanced class based role system. Like in real combat, each soldier cannot perform any role they wish as they will not be trained or equipped for it, so you choose to be a medic, and engineer, a sniper etc etc and you are given points on how well you perform your role, not just on how many people you kill.

You see when your objective is to occupy an enemy camp, you do not just send in 8 infantrymen armed with assault rifles, you have to support your troops with tanks and air support, so in order to win the round you must work as a team, repairing tanks, healing teammates and calling in airstrikes and of course good communication is key, In my eyes this creates more of a "thinking mans shooter" and puts the battlefield series head and shoulders above call of duty, which is great for explosive action and fast paces combat but lacks the depth and sense of accomplishment you get when you have beaten an entrenched enemy to a pulp with tank shells, hellfire rockets and mortar fire you have called your squadmates to deploy.

The recent Vietnam addition to BC2 brings the timeline back to the Vietnam war, with dense jungles, old-school weapons and vehicles and a killer 60s soundtrack. theres no red dot sights for your weapons, no motion sensing equipment for snipers and no defibrillators for medics, just good old fashioned ironsights, intuition and lots and lots of morphine. This change adds a fantastic backdrop to the award winning battlefield formula, and built using DICE's frostbite engine you know you're still getting fantastic visuals, long draw distances and destructible landscapes that change with every tank shell, airstrike and grenade.

Also worth mentioning is EA's Medal of Honor, a series which hasn't seen a game since the lackluster medal of honor airborne on 360 and ps3. this latest iteration is the first in the series to attempt modern warfare and received a lot of bad press for trying to knock call of duty off the Christmas best seller spot (which it failed to do, obviously, as COD fans are as unlikely to change as a hobo with only one outfit) however i LOVED it. at first i was skeptical as the game (the single player campaign that is) starts off slowly and the graphics aren't on par with other series (what with being made with the unreal engine, a decision which doesn't push any boundaries) the story escalates however to a real blood pumping edge of your seat endeavour that i couldn't put down. I'm not going to explain the whole story here, just suffice it to say its very good and well worth a look. Its also worth mentioning that the multiplayer was made by DICE using the frostbite engine so is fantastic

During my time off from work i have also had opportunity to play on my PSP (playstation portable by sony, a powerful little handheld that boasts fantastic 3D graphics, online capabilities and a whole lot of connectivity features for your ps3 such as the ability to watch live television on your psp and control your ps3 remotely) This little console never ceases to amaze me, as the developers just do things RIGHT. the games made for it arent so ambitious as the big consoles in terms of graphics, so the developers instead focused on stuffing content and top notch gameplay into their games. To give a very old school example i have been playing metal gear ac!d, one of the first games made for the psp. Metal Gear ac!d as the name might suggest is an installment in the metal gear series by award winning writer-director Hideo Kojima, however it is not your typical stealth game it is essentially a card game (odd combination between a stealth/card game with a great setting and storyline, complete with the same MGS sound effects and soundtrack). The game doesn't take itself too seriously (which it cant if the characters cannot move if they have no cards in their hand) and the characters are varied and memorable.

The gameplaysocom pistol, famas assault rifle and the ever present rations. Famous faces from the series also feature as cards: revolver ocelot, big boss, vamp, raiden and gray fox to name but a few. The game is set in the year 2017 and is a continuation of solid snake's storyline (but before foxdie caused him to age rapidly as in MGS4) ac!d is a brilliant foray into the MGS universe through an entirely new medium which is tactical and action packed throughout, although frame rate issues and some bland textures are present i would recommend this to anyone who loves strategic gameplay or is a fan of metal gear solid.

This is but one game in the PSP's arsenal, games such as Patapon, Valkyria chronicles II and the EPIC, truly wondrous Monster hunter series (developed by capcom) will forever cement the PSP as the handheld games console that defined hardcore gaming on the move. The Nintendo DS is great, it has brilliant uses of the touch screen and an entire repertoire of brilliant first paty games, but when you want a game that is no nonsense gameplay, the PSP is the system for you, not to mention you can play movies, music, watch tv and surf the web on it!

It may be worth noting that like the DS piracy is a big problem on the psp, so much so that developers have started asking what the point was in making games that many people download for free. Whilst i have modified my psp to run games i own from the internal memory card i still actively purchase retail and preowned copies of games, because if a game is worth playing its worth owning. if we as gamers wish to see high quality games at reasonable prices we have to stop stealing their games.

When i worked in x games (a videogames retailer) we would be asked if we sold R4/M3 flash cards for the Nintendo DS and we would actually have to explain to people that we do not stock them because downloading games is illegal. one woman was adamant that because she had bought the card she could have all the games for free as the cost of the card paid for them. how exactly did she think that £15 would cover the costs of thousands of pounds of games? other people refused to believe because their friends had the cards and that if they had them it wouldn't have been illegal. Anyways Nintendo eventually won the battle as flash cards are now ILLEGAL to buy and sell in the UK, sadly it is a small victory as people still import them but at least its a step towards stopping the pirates.

Well that's enough from me for now, until next time keep on truckin'