Posts Tagged ‘2009’

In a year that has seen the industry losing momentum in the face of the economic down turn and many games moving in to Q1 2010 it is hard to pretend that this was the best year for gaming. It is a however year that saw a more constant release of quality titles through out the year than long term gamers have come to expect. It is a trend that looks set to continue; though I do with they would give me a little time to recover from the (still inevitable) Christmas rush.

Due to the general difficulty for me to importing Wii titles my focus has unfortunately slanted away from Nintendo’s device this year. This combined with the iPhone dominating my mobile gaming, it seem looking back that I may have missed a number of titles that some would consider key to this year line-up. But my time is not infinite, and nor are my pockets, so while I have tried a wide array of title some have naturally fallen by the way side.

All that aside I have played a lot of incredible games this year, and honourable mentions for those that didn’t make my top five should are in order. From the downloadable games of the year we have Drop 7 the iPhone, a title that took more of my commuting (and toilet) time than I would care to admit. But it really became worrying when I was choosing to play that over my PS3 and 360. Canabalt, again on iPhone should also be mentioned. A simple platformer with a one-touch interface that proved endlessly entertaining especially as updates arrived, slowly adding new twists to the simple formula. Lastly there are Trials HD on XBLA (which kept me entertained for more hours than banging my head against a brick wall theoretically should) and Pixeljunk Shooter on PSN (that arrived to lick my bleeding forehead).

‘Big games’ that didn’t make my cut has the best licence game of the year, Batman Arkham Asylum narrowly missing the five spot. Its fantastic use of the licence and mind-blowing Scarecrow sections were only slightly marred by its weak ending. Earlier in the year I was loving Street Fighter 4, a nostalgia endued two week coma followed, which could well have taken over the year had I had more local opponents to play with. Mad World for Wii was an incredible and entertaining little brawler that slipped in to wean me of my Street Fighter addiction. It brought some more content to Nintendo’s family machine, but never received the sales it deserved. The summer drought was more muted this year that in the past, but it was still there which gave InFamous a chance to shine as I played it to completion twice, thanks to its variety of missions making it constantly entertaining.

But enough of the preamble and games that didn’t make the grade, what did rise above the other flotsam in 2009? It is a somewhat fluid list, in that ask me tomorrow and it may be slightly different but these five (plus maybe Batman and InFamous) are the games that year have stood above all of their competitors’. So ignore the numbers and just take my word for the fact these are game you owe it to yourself to at least try.

5 – Resident Evil 5 (Multi)

Any who talked to me while I was playing RE5 would have heard me complain about indefinable flaws I found in the game. How it wasn’t scary, or a horror game and how it didn’t ‘feel’ like Resident Evil. I stand by those comments, for me it wasn’t as good as the original game or Resident Evil 4, but when those stand as two of the games dearest to my heart that isn’t as damning as it may sound. Resident Evil 5 kept me coming back for months. I earned every achievement, unlocked every… unlockable… and finished the game some seven or eight times.

Yes, characters still controlled like a tanks, but that is Resident Evil, there are only so many changes you can make before you should really just do something else (which for the record I hope they do now). Despite this the game remained fun with just the right mix of hammy acting to keep it entertainingly bad without being horrible. Combine this with the ability to dip in and out of stages at will and it kept me coming back for both solo and co-op play long after I would usually have put it back on the shelf.

4 – The Path (PC/Mac)

Beautiful, evocative and magical, you would be forgiven for never having heard of this (primarily) downloadable PC/Mac title. Taking inspiration from Little Red Riding Hood the game allows you to control one of seven girls on their adventurer to grandma’s house. There is little for the player to do but direct their girl on their journey to the house (or off into the forest), but left alone near items in the world they will interact and their story and personality.

Defiantly a more relaxed, almost passive, experience compared to most games it is really only for a select group who have an interested in narrative and expression in games. Those that fit this bill will find a Grimm Fairy Tale experience unlike any other title on the market.

3 – Uncharted 2 (PS3)

It is an over used expression but describing Uncharted 2 as cinematic is the only way I know to accurately describe it’s presentation. Some of the most breathtaking graphics and voice work yet seen on a home console combine with set pieces that would not be out of place in an Indian Jones movie to create an experience which is almost as fun to watch as it is to play.

Entertaining start to finish (and with a good multiplayer if you are so inclined) it no sits as a game that I will keep to revisit in the future in the same way I would a movie. It isn’t about the gameplay, which is the same rinse and repeat formula almost though out (bar the stunning train level), it is about the Christmas afternoon action movie. The film I used to watch as a kid that I now own on DVD and keep on a shelf, just to give me a warm fuzzy feeling when I look at it.

2 – Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Released the latest of my top five Dragon Age Origins has the advantage of being the freshest in my mind, but having pumped neigh on forty hours into the game in the last three weeks I can declare this one of the best of the year. It isn’t pretty, the game went into development some time ago and the engine seems to have only undergone some mild tweaks since it began. Its lack of visual pizzazz however is more than made up for by hours of unique dialogue delivered by its superb cast. It sucks you in, constantly surprising you with incidental dialogue from both your own party and those around you as you walk through the world making it feel alive.

The incredible thing for me was how it managed to engage me in the minutia rather than the grand story. You quickly find yourself living for your party, the group you collect from various miscreants you meet on your travels. Each reacts differently, and not always predictably, to your choices. A positive act to one will repulse another and you find yourself trying to tailor your answers to appeal to a favoured party member. It is basically the ‘paragon’ and ‘renegade’ options from developer Bioware’s other big title Mass Effect, but applied on an individual level. More than any overarching morality system could this granular system judgment by individuals highlights the uncertainty of choices, how the game offers no right or wrong, just choices on your quest for a greater good.

1 – Demon’s Souls (PS3)

Number one spot (today at least) goes to Demon’s Souls. A PS3 exclusive that has managed to constantly draw me back in. Set in a desolate world, devoid of any real life it is cold and lonely. Despite this it has beauty, not only in the graphic fidelity but also in the design. It is grand and somehow tranquillity when you are not besieged by the soulless abominations that lurk behind every corner. It is an environment I may never want to go there on holiday to but it perfectly fits the fantasy medieval setting.

It is a game that is usually challenging, often punishing and at times seemingly impossible. Progress is slow, but rewarding and even at its most devious you feel like you can make progress, if you just grind a little harder. Of course if you are in need of help there is the interesting online component. Uniquely Japanese in its implementation it allows you to be constantly sharing your world, without every really having to share the experience. In the game you spend most of your time a spirit, but when you resurrect you are able to summon other spirits in to your world to help. Despite this there is no voice, no communication beyond a boilerplate set of comments that you can leave scattered on the ground. It’s co-operative, intelligent but ultimately just serves to make you feel more alone.

Not a game for everyone, but a game for me, and it stands as one of the few games this year that is continually on my mind and will keep me coming back well into 2010.

That’s it I guess. I am already remembering games I have forgotten, games like PSN’s Shatter, but if I didn’t remember them then I guess they don’t really count right? Either that or I could just keep adding to this for the rest of 2010 in the hope of suddenly finding some ‘right’ answer to the question “What was your favourite game this year?” The truth is though, I don’t think that epiphany would ever come, because there are just so many good games. There are so many in fact that I can honestly say if I stopped buying games right now it would easily be 2011 before I cleared my backlog. Guess I won’t be doing that though so here is to a costly year of 2010 gaming, kicking off for me at the end of January with Mass Effect 2.

I have been indulging in games for the past few weeks to celebrate the holidays and the Steam sale. Also I had to bake a rather crappy Christmas cake, because the Japanese ‘Christmas Cakee’ (strawberry and cream sponge cake) just doesn’t cut it. There was a little time for some writing however, Game People (.co.uk) and Play Devil (.com) are now both graced by a few of my articles. Both are great and I recommend you go and give them a look if for some reason you are itching for some DoFuss content.

Tomorrow morning (in four hours to be exact) I am off to my girlfriends home town. Being cut-off from the internet for a week will give me lots of time with the small pile of games I have been building up and give me some time to write, but no opportunity to post. Thus this will be my last, somewhat anticlimactic post of 2009. Expect a little bit more fanfare next week however with a review or two as well as a years round up and the much rumored return of Darren to the DoFuss Show.

Until then I am off to play my new shiny green PSP and whole lot of Dragon Age. Have a great New Year, thank you for reading the site in 2009 and keep your eyes here from the 4th of January for plenty of new content.

Dan is taking over. Really there is very little I can do. He swept in here with his fast-talking, smooth segueing ways, and now he is calling the shots. I will continue as a figurehead of the site only. All hail our new master.

Here hit discuss our recent visit to ‘Game Japan Festa’, plenty of news, and of course the games we have been playing.

Hopefully the coup will be unsuccessful and Darren will be back for a ‘normal’ show in time for Christmas. In the meantime keep your self entertained with this hour and a half of edited highlights. Enjoy.

Thinking back to last year’s Tokyo Game Show I recall the excitement I felt as I queued in the rain waiting to go in. The expectant crowd and I anticipating the moment the doors would open so we could enter the three huge halls that comprised the Makuhari Messe exhibition center. Everyone in line was doing the same thing; contemplating what we wanted to see when we finally got in.

By comparison this years event had decidedly less of the energy I felt in the crowd the previous year. I was still excited about going to the show but more of the rush came from being able attend the industry days. Reduced foot traffic would mean access to more games and my appointments would enable me to get time with developers rather than just being patronized by the (cute) booth staff.

Entering the floor bore out my predictions. It was quieter, as demonstrated by the fact within an hour I had played more games than I managed in a whole day the previous year, but somehow it was also less exciting. Perhaps the thrill of the open floor was muted by the realization that there were few titles I was interested in. None of the big titles I wanted to see where on the floor, and the games that were had distinctly less buzz than those at the ’08 show.

Both Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4 had been present in 2008. These were franchises that shaped the way I look at games, the two games from my youth that I remember most fondly. Their presence alone had had me agitated with excitement at the prospect of seeing what Capcom had planed for my cherished memories. By contrast the ’09 line up was filled with series that I acknowledge are top tier (such Final Fantasy XIII) but held none of the nostalgic impact for me.

Another contributing factor to my comparative indifference to the show resulted from the lack off publishers present. I wasn’t aware before the show how few of the big western developers made the trip to Japan, but when many of the years big releases are the properties of companies like EA and Activision their absence becomes painfully evident.

It wasn’t just western publishers who had deemed not to attend either. I don’t know whether it was an economic reason or a lack of product, but a number of the larger Japanese companies were also missing in action. SNK was among these notable absentees. Last year had the company present in full force with a huge display for King of Fighters 12 that occupied much of the entrance hall, but their nonattendance this year saw their floor space filled with mobile phone game developers. Tecmo and Koei’s merging this year also resulted in a reduced floor presence as the two huge areas they had previously occupied were now reduced to one.

To compound feeling of a lack of ‘AAA’ titles, many of this year’s big releases have been rated ‘Z’ by CERO Japan’s governing classifications body. Under this rating the games in stores are segregated from other games and put out of reach of under twenty-one year olds. At the show this translated to them being hidden from view in darken rooms. Thus it was only on my second day that I realized a number of games I wanted to see were present. Left 4 Dead 2, God of War 3 and Heavy Rain all remained hidden from view, making them hard to find if you explicitly go searching for them. This ended up being quite costly to my coverage because games that weren’t immediately self-evident I assumed were casualties of the diminished developer presence.

It may seem like I was unimpressed by my TGS ’09 experiences, but despite the lack of energy it remained a fascinating weekend. I got to see, and more importantly play, lots of fantastic games.

The highlights for me remain the time I spent with Q-Games, Capcom and The Behemoth (expect a transcription of my interview with them soon). Each of these companies had knowledgeable representatives (PR or developers) on hand who were happy to answer all my questions, rather than just bustle me through their booth. While they were obviously there to promote their games it didn’t dilute the feeling that these were companies confident in their products and happy to push it to the community.

In the end I was lucky enough to actually see the majority I wanted to. I did miss Okami Den and Valkiria Chronicles 2 but for the two days I was there I think I got to see about as much as I could have hoped to while leaving myself time to cover what I saw in a timely fashion.

If truth were told I was almost at breaking point through out my two days at the show. Existing the first day on three hours sleep and without food, I ran from 5am on Friday until 4am Saturday when I finally decided (after writing up eight articles) that I should try and sleep before my 8am alarm for the following day. The second day I was in two minds about even attending, remembering my success (or lack there of) on the previous year’s open days. Unfortunately one site I was writing for had requested photos of booth babes and coz-players (not something I am comfortable with) and as there were no coz-players on the industry day I had to make the return trip. As I took the pictures I reasoned that I was skillfully hiding hide myself among the crowds of Japanese otaku trying to get up skirt shots, making me feel less self conscious. I wasn’t of course, I am nearly two meters tall with red hair, but it made me feel a little less perverted as I took my surreptitious photos.

It was also nice to see the larger crowd on the public day, as while the industry days expedites coverage, the enthused visitors create an excitement around the event that is infectious. Sadly though it was immediately apparent that the audience was significantly diminished from that of ’08. Even accounting for the extra space created from the reduced developers attendance the halls felt empty (or at least as empty as any where can feel with around sixty one thousand people in a room).

It transpires that the crowd was in fact some ten thousand fewer on the first public day this year, almost solely accounting for the dip in overall attendance. Honestly I don’t know what to attribute these reduced numbers to. Initially I assumed it would be linked to the amount of coverage the games on show have already received, combined with the fact that for anyone who had attended one of the other recent previous events, such as E3, PAX or Game Com, would have already seen the demos on offer. This certainly seemed to be the feeling among foreign games press who made the journey to Japan to cover the event only to be met by the same games that they had seen less than a month previously at PAX. But the missing ten thousand people would nearly all be Japanese consumers, almost all of whom would not have attended the overseas events.

So perhaps the reduced numbers were related to the reduced number of developers and big name games at the show. The 2008 show was full of big name Japanese titles; Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts games, Resident Evil, Street Fighter and King of Fighters were all on so and some time from release. 2009 only really saw Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid still flying the flag for the big Japanese franchises. With the Metal Gear demo hitting the internet almost simultaneously with the show opening and Final Fantasy XIII just around the corner, gamers were probably more eager to save their entry fee and train fair (over ¥30,000 in the end for me) and put it towards buying the games rather than queuing to play them.

I finally gave up on the show at about 3pm on the Saturday. Having only had time to see two games in the length queues I decided my time would be better spent typing up previews for the fourteen games I had already seen rather than joining the two and a half hour line for a play of Heavy Rain. So I headed home along with my crushing headache, probably a result of sleep deprivation. It was a different and far more productive experience than 2008, but it remained expensive, tiring and something I am glad I don’t have to do too often.