Defending Bishock

Poor old Bioshock has become the Tiger Woods of gaming in the last few weeks, its formerly glittering façade apparently showing some signs of tarnish. Why is that? Because of the internet, of course. A digit in the year is about to change and consequently every real and wannabe journalist (and on the internet, who can tell them apart?) has decided to mark the end of the decade with a list. Personally, I think the end of the decade should be marked with an insightful and wide-ranging article full of relevant interviews and research that seeks to encapsulate and learn from the preceding ten years, but I haven’t got the time to write it and nor does anyone else, so lists it is.

Anyway, despite having praise liberally heaped upon it ever since its debut in 2007, Bioshock’s presence in the never ending stream of best of lists which we’re using to finally smother the noughties out of their embarrasingly named misery has got a lot of people’s backs up. “It’s not revolutionary enough.” “It didn’t change the way we play games.” “It holds your hand to much.”

To be fair, those aren’t inaccurate criticisms. At its heart, Bioshock is just another first person shooter. It’s easy to be a little underwhelmed by it, but seriously, don’t write it off the big lists just yet. This is the decade that saw the likes of Madworld and Far Cry 2 hyped to the rooftops. That’s what happens if you don’t keep a firm grasp on the concept of what a good game is.

There’s more to Bioshock than what Yahtzee memorably described as objectivist folderol, although it has to be said, the folderol is a huge part of the experience. Hearing a paraphrase of Ayn Rand’s self-serving philosophies dished up by the game’s Andrew Ryan in a voice that resembles Charles Foster Kane at his most contemptuous is a huge part of the game, as much of the Bioshock atmosphere comes from the contrast between the contorted justification of greed and selfishness with the horrors it has led to. While Ryan booms out Zeus like pronouncements from the tannoy and Atlas charms you over the radio, the reality of the situation is revealed by Rapture’s many audio diaries that paint the real picture of the city’s decline through the fears of its citizens. There aren’t many games that craft such a nuanced, layered story or unfold it with such perfect timing, and all with barely a cutscene in sight.

If the story isn’t enough for you, what about Rapture itself? All gilt and neon, art deco at the bottom of the ocean, Bioshock is one of those games that constantly makes you stop to just look around. Remember how you loved the wide open environment when you first played Halo, but it soon wore off? Remember the way the pre-rendered backgrounds of Resident Evil gave a real sense of place and progress, but they soon wore off too? In Bioshock, Rapture never wears off. Even after several hours of play you’ll still be stopping in rooms and corridors to marvel at the view

Ten there are the achievements. Few games ever get the balance of achievements as right as Bioshock does, and its responsible for my final conversion into a scorewhore. It’s almost as if Bioshock is grateful to you for playing it, the way it constantly drops little 15 and 20g gifts into your score, whilst holding in reserve some slightly tougher rewards designed to make you play more, and harder. Even Bioshock’s big achievements are perfectly balanced between not being instantly attainable, but not being so difficult that they ever reduce the game to the drudge of pigeon-hunting or ingot-collecting.

Sure, Bioshock does have it’s weaknesses. For all the nuance of its story, the games famed moral choice aspect is a blunt and unsophisticated either/or proposition, and don’t get me started on the difficulty. Having heard time and again how tough the Big Daddies were, how I’d feel amazing when I finally beat one of these dangerous behemoths, how they’re among gaming’s best bosses, I naturally erred on the side of caution and set the difficulty a little low for my first Bioshock playthrough. I spent the game with medical kits raining down on me like manna from heaven, got to the point here I was killing Big Daddies in a nonchalant, offhanded fashion (can you wield a rocket launcher insouciantly? I certainly can.) and only died once in the entire game.

Of course, that’s a minor complaint. When a game offers character development and plot material right to the very last, it would be a terrible shame to miss any of it by turning the difficulty level up to the level of a brain aching slog.

No, Bioshock may be ‘just another shooter’, but it’s a brilliantly realised one, full of wit and clever asides, set in a beautifully degraded environment. It doesn’t reinvent the way games are played, but it’s mix of inventiveness and excitement reminds you of why you play them in the first place.

I've played Batman: Arkham Asylum, who wants to touch me?

Surrounded by mannequins depicting a selection of gaming’s greatest characters, not to mention some preposterously breasted Lara Croft models, I started wondering if Batman has what it takes to join them in gaming’s pantheon. On the evidence I’ve seen it definitely has what it takes to impress Batman fanboys, thanks to endless visual and dialogue references to all parts of the Batman canon and a selection of script and voice talent from the popular animated series. So, as a massive comic geek I can say that I’m deliriously happy with the game. But the question is, what’s it like when you pick up the controller?

I’ve now had about two hours of hands-on time with a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum that’s so close to being finished that there’s little more than a bit of sound balancing to be done, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s really very good…but perhaps not perfect. I won’t review on the basis of two hours, but I’m guessing the finished game is heading for a very positive three stars or perhaps even four.

For starters, it’s beautifully presented, with everything from the strangely tinted lighting effects through to the rippling of Batman’s cape clearly showing the benefit of some painstaking work. Huge amounts of motion capture have been used, with the actor playing Killer Croc wearing weights on his legs to get a suitably lumbering, musclebound gait.

Combat is split between three buttons: Y for counters, X for strikes and B for ape sweeps that brush aside knives and batons. Dealing with hand-to-hand weapons is one thing, but Bat’s really doesn’t like guns, and if armed opponents are around you’ll need to use stealth to get above, below or behind them unnoticed, and then use the stealth takedowns you’ve unlocked to take them out. It’s a nice mixture of smooth, combo-based brawling and clever stealth that looks a lot smoother and less scripted in play than it does in the trailers.

You can see if opponents are armed using the game’s detective mode, a visor that scans opponents, walls, hostages and weapons to identify their conditions, weak points and grapple points. It can also be used to follow scent and chemical trails and to spot the question marks left around the asylum by the Riddler.

This mixture of scanning and swinging, combined with the need to re-traverse certain areas, gives Batman: Arkham Asylum the feel of Metroid Prime at times, albeit a Metroid Prime with added stealth and hand-to-hand combat sequences.

The script is excellent, and while there are a few dud moments in the delivery, the important lines from the important voice actors are delivered perfectly.

I have got a few reservations, mind you. The Detective mode is almost too useful to turn off, yet having it on all the time gets in the way of the gorgeous graphics. In two hours of play, I never came across a reason to come out of detective mode apart from my own desire to see the game properly. Without a cost, or a need to recharge it, Detective mode feels like it might become one of those game mechanics so ever-present that it becomes a distraction.

On top of that, the game seemed strangely room-based, having you progress along corridors towards open areas in which large brawls take place, in a fashion that feels more like an old-school beat-em-up rather than a modern action-adventure game.

Small complaints like that don’t mean its not one of the best games I’ve played for a long time, or that I won’t be buying it come August 28th, but they are enough to make me think that it might not get a full five stars.

A confession...

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m very picky about racing games. I don’t care about realistic damage simulation, the effects of tire degradation or the accurate recreation of sports cars that cost the same as a small house.

By the same chalk, I don’t really care for the ability to shoot at the cars I’m racing, or pick up power boosts, or the ability to come off a bump in the road and achieve the sort of pants-wetting heights that should only be attained under the control of a skilled pilot, with an over-friendly air hostess handing you a complimentary gin and tonic and a couple of Mogadon.

So, there you have it, I don’t like racing simulators, and I don’t like arcade racers. I don’t want to feel that my choice of sparkplug is going to come back to haunt me, nor do I want to win by shooting someone with a red tortoiseshell. I want a game that lets me race as if I’m driving a real car on a real track, but doesn’t penalise me for the fact that I can’t drive for toffee.

Which is why I’m expecting to be in the minority when I say that I really enjoyed Superstars V8.

Ok, it’s comparatively limited in tracks and drivers, one moment its penalising you for cutting a measly corner while the next its letting you get away with a massive detour across the grass, and its damage simulation boils down to little more than a wobbly bumper, but if you can get past all that, and the awful heavy metal soundtrack, then you’ve got the sort of racing game they used to make. The sort that makes you call up a bunch of your mates and have them come round to your house (take that, Xbox live) with beers and peanuts and spend an evening passing controllers back and forth, roaring encouragement at each other and feeling like Jimmy Hunt.

Between its howling turbos, surprisingly invulnerable cars and aggressive but not overly intelligent pack, Superstars V8 will have you breaking late, diving for gaps that aren’t there, and generally doing your best to drive intelligently while slowly succumbing to the red mist.

It doesn’t have thoroughly realistic handling, it doesn’t have many tracks, and it’s even missing a few real life cars thanks to licensing issues, but that didn’t stop me having a cracking good time with it.You can watch my in-game footage in my Superstars V8 review.

Fallout falls to Fight Night 4!

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, Fallout 3 has been knocked off the top of my playlist.

What could topple the huge and addictive RPG? Well, partly it’s the arrival of EA’s excellent Fight Night Round 4, but mainly, it’s the presence of a really ill judged piece of DLC.

Now to be fair to Bethesda, they’ve come a long way since cheekily trying to get gamers to part with their money for horse armour in Oblivion. In general, the Fallout 3 DLC has been well worth the money, with the Pitt offering new weapons and a compelling story, Brokent Steel offering new weapons and an increased level cap, and Point Lookout offering new weapons and new environments. But Operation Anchorage? Well, it offers new weapons. Alas, it also offers an incredibly dull gameplay that feels at odds with the general Fallout 3 experience.

Heavily combat oriented and almost entirely linear, Operation Anchorage has you playing what is essentially an FPS with Fallout’s VATS system, placing you in a virtual reality historical simulation of the war that led to the devastation you see everywhere in the main game. Alas, the snowy wastelands, prescribed paths and lack of any real exploration or gameplay choices are completely at odds with the rest of Fallout, and even the addition of the excellent Gauss Gun can’t compensate for the way Operation Anchorage wrenches you out of the Fallout experience.

To be honest, much had been made of the Operation Anchorage’s weknesses before now, which is why I’d gone for all the other DLC first, but when Anchorage appeared with a 35% reduction, I assumed it would be worth it. Don’t make the same mistake-get the later DLC, but steer clear of Operation Anchorage.

The other part of Fallout 3’s temporary removal from my must play list? Fight Night Round 4. It’s a wonderfully nuanced and speedy simulation of the sweet science, one that uses authentic physics, realistic fighting styles and varied fighter to produce an utterly addictive gaming experience, and that’s before you’ve even taken it online, where it really starts to excel. Check out my full Fight NightRound 4 review here.

The Conduit delayed: bad news for The Wii?

Poor old Wii. I still maintain that playing a good game on the Wii is just about the most enjoyable gaming experience you can have, but it’s not an easy thing to do. Given the scarcity of good titles and glut of shovelware, the average Wii sits unattended for lengthy spells waiting for the next arrival of a rarer-than-Hero-dolls Triple A title.

Which is why it probably didn’t need the announcement that the long awaited Wii FPS The Conduit has been delayed due to ‘localisation issues’. It’s only a short delay, moving the game from June 26th back to July 10th, and it goes a little way towards excusing the usually ominous rarity of review samples, but still, it’s a blow to the Wii.

Following an E3 at which Micrsoft and Sony both announced exciting new technology and games, the Wii at present can muster in it’s defence the prospect of four new Mario games, a faint rumour of a new Zelda title and a £15 add-on gadget that simply makes the Wiimote as responsive as most people hoped it would be back when they shelled out £170 for the console in the first place.

Really, with the future looking so unoriginal, the Wii needed The Conduit ASAP to keep people interested.

Ok, so if there are no further delays, it’s a matter of three weeks. But it’s three weeks that will see the release of Fight Night Round 4, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Ghostbusters and Overlord II on other platforms. Ok, its not like the other consoles are getting new Halo or Metal Gear Solid games, but it’s still a list of highly anticipated titles, and to compete the Wii needed to offer more than just re-issues of old Donkey Kong and Resident Evil games (really, I love Resident Evil games, but I’ve got them all on Wii compatible Gamecube discs, am I really going to pay for them again just for added Wii-waggling?).

To be fair, its only a three week delay, but it’s three weeks at the end of dry spell that goes back several months. I’m sure The Conduit will be great when it finally gets here, but it’s a pattern that repeats itself far too often, and when a Wii lies unused during the huge gulfs between good games, it’s hard not to wonder if gamers eyes will start to wander.

What's the plan?

Ok, so the great thing about this being my blog is that I can say what I want. If my first thought about UFC Undisputed is that it contains a disturbing amount of sweaty redneck manwrestling, then I don’t have to convert that into a comment on the ‘complexities of the ground game’.

I can also offer partial opinions and reviews in progress. Frankly, there are entire forums full of professional game reviewers making trumped-up claims to how much of a game they play before writing the review - the baseline is always ‘the whole story mode’, after which the assembled hacks attempt to trump each other by adding ‘several hours of multiplayer’, ‘several hours on all the maps’ or ‘playing the story mode on a higher difficulty, completing all the mini-games and collecting all the special items’. Frankly, I’m waiting for one of those berks to claim that a review isn’t done until they’ve got a full DNA sequence of the lead programmer.

Aside from the fact that I think they’re all lying, there’s a hell of a difference between what I have to do for work and what I have to do for fun, and this blog is for my own amusement. There’s not a chance in hell that I’m going to write a review based on all three discs and 40 hours of play in Star Ocean: The Last Hope when I’ve got Prototype and Fight Night Round 4 sitting next to the Xbox and Conduit on its way for the Wii.

On top of that, it’s my blog, not a news blog, so I don’t have to be timely. When Resident Evil 5 came out, I went on a retro binge and played through Resi 1, 2, 3, 4 and 0 for nostalgia value. I intended to then jump into Resi 5 at the end of it, but strangely enough I was all zombied out, so it just sits in my pile. In any case, I can write about my enjoyment of those decade old games rather than having to worry about whether Killzone 2 being the best looking game I’ve ever seen makes up for the fact that I was a little bit bored by it.

So… you can expect unvarnished opinions that may wander off topic, but will hopefully be useful simply by dint of their honesty. You can expect reviews that might not take into account the annoying fetch quest which happens eight hours in because, hey, I got bored and something better came along, alright? And you can expect opinions, digressions and meanderings based on whatever games I happen to have loved or hated in the past that just happen to have bubbled back up to the forefront of my thoughts right now.

Essentially, this will be a blog on which a professional game reviewer behaves like an ordinary fan, and has a great deal more fun because of it.