Posts Tagged ‘Gamepeople’

Shifting away from the old massive-link posts I am now planning to do more regular pieces letting you know about my articles on other sties while they are still vaguely relevant. This format will also allow me (where appropriate) to give a little more detail on the thought process behinds specific posts, and expand if necessary.

I confess that shots like this not only hit all the nostalgic notes, but also offer me hope that Gearbox are on the right track.

The first of these posts is my recent preview of Aliens: Colonial Marines, the upcoming movie licence from Gearbox. Some twenty-five years after the release of the Aliens movie, this new game is to tell the story of what happened after reactor explosion on LV:426, as you take control of a new squad of marines sent in to investigate the ill-fated planet.

As a long time fan of the series the games announcement hit me with equal parts excitement and dread as I realised that there was considerable more chance of failure than success at maintaining the movies themes and tension. It is this I focus on in the preview, discussing how the squad-based gameplay will struggle to portray the panic and mistrust that is such a pivotal element of the movie’s potency.

Perhaps I am being unfair to the development team but my doubts stem from two (almost) inevitable truths; that movie tie-ins usually suck, and that a game’s desire to reach a broad audience generally requires forgoing tension in favour of action. I am sure that graphically Aliens: Colonial Marines will be everything avid fans of the series could hope for, but I fear that once again that the nostalgia mining moneymen are hocking my childhood to line their pockets.

To see more information about the game, and more on my thoughts head over to Game People and have a look.

It has been a while since I did one of these link posts, and if all you do is follow me on DoFuss you could be easily mistaken for thinking that something horrible has happened to me — especially if you are still waiting for the last DoFuss Show (believe it or not it is still planned). I checked back the other day and I have posted alarmingly little in the past six months despite previous promises of increased content.

I will not make excuses, but my life has been turbulent and my attention drawn away from the site by my search for work and my writing for other sites. In truth though for all of this I have had more than enough time on my hands, and can’t really place how I wasted it all.

Things have been changing though. Firstly the number of sites I now contribute to has grown, now including Games Jobs Japan, a site set up by gaming recruitment agency Interactive Selection to help place foreign workers in Japan. On top of this, while my furious hunt for work has met with a number of refusals recently I have at least been responding to follow up emails and even a few interviews.

A change came for me last week though as I realised that, in order to really get my first foot on the ladder of gaming employment, a bit more direct experience was need. So I joined the Train2Game design course. This two to three year is specifically constructed to help its pupils train for work in the industry. Backed by TIGA, and supported by a range of other gaming institutions, the design course I am on is set to give me a basic grounding in the skills I need to enter the production side of the industry.

But I don’t intend to rest on my laurels or let DoFuss fall to the way side, yes I will be busy studying… and writing… and hopefully working… but my love for this little site endures. With that in mind the direction is to shift slightly. My hope for the next few months is to post daily, but with a more eclectic range of topics (with gaming remaining at the core). The plan is to add news that catches my eye, links to my other writings, diary entries about my course and, on occasion, the kind of musings you have come to expect from DoFuss.

So starting soon, maybe tomorrow, expect DoFuss to get busier. Until then (like you can’t wait) below are links to everything you may have missed since my last link post, just to prove I have been keeping myself out of trouble. Also, for the record these big link posts may look lazy but they are a pain in the arse to do, so this will (thankfully) be the last one.

Scared Gamer Reviews- DJ Hero 2, Super Meat Boy, Braid (PS3), Dr Kawashima, Costume Quest, Dead Space 2, Dead Space Extraction, Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising Case West, Stacking, Pilotwings Resort, Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Portal 2, Steel Diver, Gatling Gears, Beyond Good and Evil HD, InFamous 2.

Reporting Gamer Previews - Yoostar 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Catherine, SSX: Deadly Descents, Rayman Origins, Ridge Racer Unbounded, Orcs Must Die, Prey 2, Blood Rayne Betrayal, The Darkness 2, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, Track Mania 2: Canyon, Alice Madness Returns, Soul Calibur 5, Hunted the Demons Forge, UFC Personal Trainer, Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City, Wii Exerbeat, Red Johnson Chronicles, Dark Souls, Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Solider, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Child of Eden, Anarchy Reigns, Star Wars Kinect.

Game People Podcast - Alan Wake, Stacking, Flower, Uncharted Series, LA Noire.

Reviews – LA Noire, Faery Legends of Avalon, Soldnerx 2: The Final Prototype – The Last Chapter, Mircobot, Zeit, Spare Parts, Hard Corps: Uprising, Nintendo 3DS, Pilotwings Resort, Super Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition, Nintendogs and Cats, Steel Diver, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Strania: The Stella Machina, Ghostbusters Sanctum of Slime, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

Previews – Bullet Storm.

Articles and Interviews – Nine Things to Remember About Japanese Business Culture, Interview with Q-Games Ariel Angelotti, Interview with Q-Games Jaymin Kessler.

You could be fooled in to thinking my output is on the decline. These days I am lucky to get one post up a week here on DoFuss (though I already have one ready for this week) but the reason is not a dip in my passion, but instead an increase in unseen (or at least alternately located) work.

Contributing to a number of sites saps the time I can dedicate to DoFuss, but does have the advantage of generating links and netting me some free games. Yes, I wish I had more time to play games I wanted to and dedicate to my the site here, and no, many of the games that I now ‘have’ to play are good. But the experience of writing under editors to deadlines is proving more satisfying than I could have ever anticipated.

Here is a selection of links and snippets from recent reviews and articles on a number of sites. My pride in each piece varies it is true, indeed it is interesting to see how temperamental I can be when a game holds no interest, or when I write while overly tired. Still it makes a good cross section of my work in recent months, so see what takes your fancy and go and have a look.

Game People is a new UK based site that is already gaining traction by virtue of some fantastic writers and their column on The Escapist. Every article focuses on an individual’s perspective about a game. It is unabashedly subjective, aiming to give readers the opportunity to understand each contributor’s personality and decide whose opinion they trust.

At Game People I am known as Scared Gamer. Writing articles and reviews from my own personal experience I focus on fear and violence in games. Here is a fraction of my work for the site, with lots waiting to be posted and still more sat as unfinished files on my desktop.

Dragon Age Origins – PC (Review)
Dragon Age Origins roundly impressed with genuine relationships and perplexing moral choices. While everyone will play this game for different reasons, I fell in love with the characters and their stories.

See the full article here.

Metroid Prime Trilogy – Wii (Review)
Metroid Prime Trilogy’s genuine sense of place not only sucked me into its universe but unnerved me to the core. Helmeted claustrophobic scary excitement and all on the diminutive unassuming little Nintendo Wii.

See the full article here.

Spectrobes: Origins – Wii (Review)
Spectrobes: Origins has all the gloss and quality you’d expect from Disney. Although not hugely improving on Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals this is a strong Japanese style Role Play Game once you get past the sacchrine visuals and storyline. That’s about as scary as it gets though.

See the full article here.

Dementium: The Ward – DS (Review)
Dementium: The Ward manages the impossible, a full 3D survival horror on the DS. In hand though it is unclear whether we really wanted this. Clever ideas and atmosphere wrestle with the small screen and dark visuals to make their impact. There are strong moments here, provided you find a secluded spot in which to play.

See the full article here.

Vertigo Again (Article)
Some fears are innate; from birth they afflict every one of us, from an ingrained understanding of the threat posed to us. One of the most primitive of these is the fear of heights. The majority of people learn to overcome this fear, or at least control it. Others are not so lucky, their dread becomes so acute that it manifests its self physically causing dizziness and nausea. In some rare cases this fear can grow to an irrational level, making even moderate heights insurmountable.

See the full article here.

Sounding Scared (Article)
I never realised how evocative sound could be. I suppose I should have, remembering the night I was near paralysed by the sound of children playing on rusted playground equipment – memories of Silent Hill flooded in to terrify me. Yet even this drunken encounter didn’t drive home to me just how powerful sound could be.

See the full article here.

Little League World Series Baseball 2009 – Wii (Review)
Little League takes Wii-Sports Baseball to the next level without overcomplicating the action. Hoping to take a breather from scary games this week, I had forgotten my sporting misapprehensions. Little League World Series Baseball on the Wii helped me put them to bed once and for all though.

See the full article here.

Play Devil is a European site, established ten years ago. Here I focus primarily on reviews of XBLA and PSN games. It has been a mixed bag as regards the games I have received, with some being amazing (and pre-release) while others have had me near homicidal at the though of having to complete them.

Editorially they are very supportive, but being small they also often need to court favor with publishers which sees some of my scores and text muted before they are published. So far this has never been dramatic enough to cause any really trouble as the granularity in the 100% scale has left me feeling on the whole uncompromised, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if one day I was completely contrary in my opinion to the majority of other sites.

Gravity Crash – PSN (Review)
Gravity Crash relies on the pull of gravity and physics to supply much of its challenge. Your craft suffers the constant downwards pull of gravity, ensuring that there is no idle time in the game, as unless you are careful you ship will drop to the surface of the planet.

See the full article here.

Pixeljunk Shooter –PSN (Review)
Over the course of three titles Q-Games has managed to build the Pixeljunk brand into one of the most recognized in the downloadable console space. Every game in the series has been to all outward appearances disparate, each with its own visual style and gameplay. But underlying each title is a single common thread; stylish and inventive two-dimensional gaming.

See the full article here.

Smash Cars – PSN (Review)
Smash Cars makes a good first impression. Your tiny R.C. monster truck is cute when juxtaposed against the life-sized beach and pier setting of the opening levels. Tearing around the track give a good sense of speed that combines well with the light nature of you diminutive car. Somehow the floatier feel these small cars makes the game stand out from a lot of other arcade racers on the market and goes some of the way to excusing some of the cars more outlandish properties, such as the ability to jump (and the inclusion of nitro).

See the full article here.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – PS3 (Review)
The writing was refined both in the characterizations and the scale of the story. Returning characters are expanded upon, and perhaps more importantly additional cast arrive. Each member is significantly more believable than the majority of game characters thanks to the wonderful script, which is bought to life by the vocal talent. Through out the interaction between the cast members is a joy to listen to, and fortunately it isn’t limited to the cut scenes as characters continually banter back and forth continually, ensuring that you are consistently entertained even when the action is of a slower pace.

See the full article here.

Military Madness: Nectaris – PSN (Review)
Perhaps my biggest problem with Military Madness comes from its story’s heritage. An Earth force sent to battle convicts rebelling from their force labour mines on the moon. While it is undeniably clichéd, the plot serves as a serviceable setting for the action. Unfortunately the moon does not serve as a fantastic environment for today’s more visually demanding audiences.

See the full article here.

Video Game Reviews is UK site I contributed articles to for a short time. Recently the editor of the site contacted me again to write some articles for its sister site Xboxer 360 (so I must have been doing something right). Here are two of the articles I wrote for them, and keep an eye on Xboxer 360 for my upcoming article ‘Post Natal Depression’.

Sex, Lies and Console Wars (Article)
Now I have to ask you bear with me through this comparison of why “console wars” are stupid. Some of what is said to many could be considered immoral, but I regret none of it and everyone involved was aware of my situation. It regards a time in my life when I was broken hearted and I went on what something of a binge before I left University. It was a week of fun and stress that made me realize it doesn’t matter what you have you should be happy with it, and more importantly, there is no need to try and denigrate other peoples fun for the sake of you own sense of self worth.

See the full article here.

An Open Letter To Fanboys (Article)
There always seems to be huge furore over console exclusive titles. Games that platform holders either developed themselves, or heavily subsided. The presumed quality of these titles is based solely on the simple fanboy logic that if their manufacturer of choice feels a game is good enough to grant it the seal of ‘PS3 Exclusive’ or ‘Only on Xbox 360’ then somehow it must be justifiably better than other titles on the market.

See the full article here.

If you have been reading the site for some time you will no doubt have realised by now that I am a lover of the survivial horror genre. Well, I would have loved to write something specific for the festivities, but unfortunately I have been far too busy. Luckily however two (maybe three by now) of my reviews were recently posted on Gamepeople where I am now contributing reviews to their Scared Gamer section. Here are snippets to all three and links to the two that are up. Keep an eye out for the third, partly to support me and partly because it’s a review of the fantastic Demon’s Souls the game which makes me want to quit writing to give me more time to play.

The Path

The Path, Tale of Tales (PC, Mac)

“The Path asks a lot of its audience, demanding that players completely submerge themselves in its world and characters. All horror games require an element of role-playing from their audience. If a title cannot draw the player into its fiction then there is no hope of eliciting the base instinctive emotion of fear. In The Path the realization of this immersion is especially challenging due to the nature of its characters and the open narrative structure, but if you can get past these obstacles you are rewarded with unsettling tales of lost innocence.”

Check it out here…

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 5, Capcom (360, PS3)

“I squint as we step into the searing Africa sun. Chris Redfield and I have done this before, but that was twelve years ago. It was a different age then, filled with surprise and wonder at what Capcom had created for us in their game, Resident Evil. Now, as we approach Resident Evil 5, we are older, cynical and prepared for what lays ahead. We move forward, cautions but confident.”

Check it out here…

Demon's Souls

Demon’s Souls, Atlus (PS3)

“Demon’s Souls is a game that forces the players to edge their way forward an inch at a time. Every turn is a new opportunity for death. Be it from stumbling upon an over powered enemy or fall down a hole; trial and error is a necessity. Death proves only a minor setback, only robbing the player of souls (experience), which can be recovered if you find the bloodstain that marks your last resting place. Yet the game even makes this feel like too much of a risk to take, ensuring caution at every turn.”

Check it out here…