Hello.

We’ve got something a little bit new for you this evening – for the first time ever, Stoo and I have co-written a discussion review.

The game in question is Hardball III – so be prepared to be hit with the combined force of our baseball knowledge.

We’ve also posted a little explanation of what we’re trying to achieve with the discussion format on the journal, if you also want to check that out.

Hello everyone. Our comittment to Sierra games has always been just a bit more lacking than you might expect for old-time adventure fans. Pretty much the only series we’ve played extensively is Police Quest. Rik played one Space Quest and hasn’t been in a rush to go back, I did like the first Quest for Glory but somehow never found time for the sequels. Also we sort of hate Leisure Suit Larry. (sorry, fans!).

Anyway tho tonight we’ve got, if not the game that started the whole genre, at least one of its sequels. King’s Quest 6.

So my most recent holiday game was: Fight Night Round 3 on PSP. (Not that I go on holiday to sit inside and play games, but there are odd moments when the opportunity arises, and the flight, of course).

I’ve been after a boxing game for a while, but options are extremely limited on PC, with EA declining to even knock out half-arsed ports of their console boxing titles (I’m sure they’ve done their sums) which leaves, well, very little actually.

Fortunately, half-arsed ports are what the PSP does best. It’s normally a good bet that you’ll get a cut-down version of an existing PS2 title, particularly if it’s a multi-format sports games from a behemoth like EA, which is probably a bit of a raw deal when you’re putting down £30 a time, but expectations are significantly reduced when it’s a case of hunting the second-hand shelves with a handful of pocket-change to spare.

Graphics and sound stand up pretty well, but it seems as if some compromises with the control scheme have had to be made to allow for the PSP’s lack of a second analogue stick. Which basically means that, here, punching is pretty easy, but blocking and parrying is pretty damned difficult.

So far, it’s been fairly enjoyable stuff, although progress has been pretty trouble-free considering I haven’t got a clue how to defend myself properly (and this is on medium difficulty, before you ask). The controls are partly to blame, although I think it would be also fairly difficult for you to anticipate where punches were coming from in time to pull off the more effective parrying manoeuvres even if you had a joypad at your disposal.

The result is that recent fights have largely resembled the Rocky movies, rather than any real boxing match I’ve ever seen, with huge punches landing left, right and centre, and both fighters taking one hell of a beating before they actually a) get knocked down and b) give up the ghost.

Another problem is that you have to give your boxer a macho nickname (selected from around 15 presets), only to discover that many of your opponents seem to share it with you. This makes for some confusing in-fight commentary: [whirr]…”THE BEAST is taking a beating from…[whirr]…THE BEAST” (yes, I know it’s a silly name, but it’s boxing – there aren’t any modest options).

On the plus side, it does most things a casual fan of boxing like me could ask for, with a lengthy career mode that offers the chance to indulge in some of the more ridiculous aspects of the sport (adding silly tattoos to your chest, paying for fireworks and an entourage to accompany your entrance) as you battle your way up the rankings. One thing I might have liked a little more of is something that does a little more to capture the media pantomime that accompanies real-life boxing – smack-talk in the press and at the weigh-in, post-bout reactions etc.

On the other hand, that might well be a gimmick too far, and there is something to be said for sports games not trying to shoehorn in a narrative in an attempt to add drama to proceedings. If you just leave the player to get on with things, then the events of their own game provide enough of a story – heroes, villains, rivalries – without it being bolted on artificially.

The same argument could be made to explain why sporting films are generally crap. Driven may be terrible, but I’d argue that you’d have a hard time coming up with a non-clichéd script based on any sport. Sporting documentaries, or biopics, on the other hand, do a lot better job by using the real events and stories and re-telling them.

Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh yeah – Fight Night on PSP. It’s quite good, although not, I suspect, as good as it could be. Which is a pretty good summary of my feelings towards EA Sports titles in general.

Hello there.

After some time away, we’re back with a new review, just in time for Easter. And what better way to mark the occasion than with the mid-point of a series of car racing games?

So let’s hear it for TOCA Race Driver 2.

As we’ve a few days off, there might be more soon. Or there might not. We haven’t decided.

Those in the UK (and others with access to the internet) are likely to be at least dimly aware of the current plight of the GAME group. With unsolicited opinions being offered left, right and centre, I have no real wish to add another, except for the fact I feel a little bit bad about my post at the end of January (visible on the journal front page at the time of writing) detailing some awkward exchanges with members of GAME staff. The intention was to make fun of my own awkwardness, more than anything else, but with all that’s going on at the moment it might now seem in slightly poor taste, so I’ll just add a brief thoughts as follows:

1) GAME isn’t what it used to be – back in the day their stores were almost always a better option for range and price than rivals Electronics Boutique (until EB ended up buying GAME) – but I still go in and buy games there. Whatever mistakes they’ve made, and if I had an opinion on what they were, I don’t think it would be a particularly informed one, I think there’s still a place for them on the high street.

2) Speaking of uninformed opinions, I’m pretty sure those putting forward the ‘OH ITS THERE OWN STUPID FALT FOR BEING SO SHIT I WENT INTO GAME THE OTHER DAY AND THEY DIDN’T EVEN HAVE WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR’ argument (also available in slightly more eloquent and reasonable-sounding forms essentially amounting to the same thing) don’t have the first idea what they’re talking about, no matter how much they claim to know about ‘basic business’. Plus, it’s mean-spirited and nasty, and that’s not called for when people are going to lose their jobs.

3) I’m sure there are good indie and second-hand shops out there (on a related note, Gamestation, also now part of the GAME group, was once but a single second-hand shop in York that I used to frequent quite regularly, until it became a chain, then part of Blockbuster, then a GAME ‘brand’) but anyone espousing the virtues of the likes of CEX might want to head to the Tottenham Court Road branch before claiming that the prices are better and the staff more friendly.

Good evening.

Tonight’s new review is of an adventure game called The Moment of Silence.

Coming next time: something good.

Currently playing: Dawn of War 2.

The original had some novel ideas about replacing resource-gathering with taking and holding territory. I didn’t realise however how much further this one diverges with the RTS formula. It totally dumps the resource managent and base building altogether, and reduces the scale of your army to a small elite team of heroes.

So in any one mission you have the commander, two or three seargants each leading a handful of squaddies, and optionally a big stompy robot thing. As you complete missions your heroes gain experience and become more powerful with new abilities. They also aquire better weapons and armour.

This means a bit of planning how you want to build your guys. Which means it gets a bit RPG. Although really that just means for a couple of guys, deciding if you want them to be more close-quarters or hand-to-hand types. Then before each mission you decide who’s going to be the most useful, and what toys to give them. ie does heavy dude get the anti-infantry machinegun or the rocket launcher.

Then in battle since we’re not sending out combine harvesters to gather unobtanium to build tanks, it’s all about tactics. So cover plays a key role, as do ways of flushing enemies out of it. (flamer is good for this, but not so great in other roles. Decisions decisions!).

Anyway I’ve mostly got the hang of it. I generally like laying down a hail of fire from the shooty dudes then having the commander charge the enemy whilst they’re suppressed. Also the scout, whilst not much use in a straight up fight, can sneak around sniping and bombing stuff.

Or I can just have the dreadnought (robot thing) show up. It looks ridiculous and tends to shuffle around as if a bit confused, knocking over the cover I meant to hide behind. But then it lets rip with its minigun and space-elves go flying. Hurray.

That said the boss fights tend to get a bit messy.
How it should go: Force Commander tanks it, shooty guys let rip from behind cover, sneaky guy throws bombs, assault guys take on any extra baddies that show up

How it tends to go: boss chases heavy weapon guys. They run away. Commander runs after boss. Sneaky guy gets wiped out. Dreadnought stomps in a circle, shoots up some rocks.

Oh and the eldar farseer has a really horrible area of effect attack. Keep everyone apart from the Force Commander well away from her with room to scatter.

btw I’m only playing on the 2nd out of four difficulty levels. It’s the sort of situation where I can tell I’m being let off easy sometimes – I look at bad guys outflanking me and think, that was stupid move I made there, and I really should have gotten wiped out for it. Did I mention the idea of me being a “strategy gamer” is a total charade?

Oh yeah and this is all Warhammer-based, hence the space elves. Also space-orks. And your guys are warrior-monks in powered armour waving chainsaw-swords as they declare FOR THE EMPEROR. I know some of you find the setting totally ridiculous and, well, it is. But it’s more colourful and entertaining, in a GRIMDARK++ way, than most other generic scifi.

Anyways this isn’t exactly retro gaming is it? We should look at the original one day.

Hello. It’s me again, I’m afraid.

We have that rarest of things on FFG this evening – two review in one update. I know, I know, we’re amazing.

So, here’s a double-whammy of old-school football fun: Kick Off 2 and Goal!.

Hello world. You might remember me, I’m supposed to show my face here and write about old games sometimes. And not leave it to Rik to keep the project going.

Well here I am today, with a fairly obscure little first-person-shooter from the very early days – Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold.

Thief Gold on GoG

The supreme master of stealth gaming finally arrives on Good Old Games. Even better it’s the Gold edition, with has three extra maps and used to be a bit harder to find.

Here’s the quick version of Why thief was awesome:
1: large maps with a high degree of freedom – find your own way around. Try to either evade guards, or knock them out, or fail, run desperately for your life, hide in a shed. Then try again. Hell you can try being an action hero if you want. (it probably won’t work)
2: AI with convincing multiple levels of awareness, from oblivious patrols to actively hunting you
2: art, design and sound lead make it amazingly atmospheric

Here’s why some people thought it went off the rails: the way the maps flick from a more-or-less realistic medieval setup, to sneaking past undead monsters (and some weirdy “spirits of the forest” types). But I think the games survives that change of direction. For one thing it’s still stealthy, and also we got some truly memorable “survive ancient, haunted ruins” type experiences. But if you still really dislike that I’m sure Thief 2 will be along later, which swapped the undead for a more steampunk theme.