- MarkBOSS

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The advertising tag for this was 'is your tv big enough', a great comment on how games were changing beyond the TV's they've always been played on.

At the time it could have been seen as a sign of things to come, however the immediate after-flow of games seemed only to work on what these games have done rather than completely redefine its genre such as Super Mario 64 did with the platform genre. To look back it is apparent that it is the leap in 3D graphics at the time meaning that it would actually take another huge technological leap to re-invent the games/genres we play today. Gaming technology has always driven the possibility and differences of new gaming genres and this is what I wish to explore on this article.

Likewise with both Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7, there was a huge leap on what these games could accomplish to their predecessors. It was the jump to CD ROM that allowed the scope of FF7 possible and the Hollywood combination of visuals and sound in MGS.

The same effect of new technology into great games can be seen also in the late 80’s where gaming had changed due to the first successful home consoles such as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), offering something different to that of their arcade parents. Primarily the first video games ever created were basic reflex and aiming endeavours. And as technology has evolved so have the game mechanics and genres to it, as well as the audience. Only kids could have been marketed with a game like Super Mario Bros (1987) on the NES, with its cartooned visuals, which were all that was capable at the time. But as time went by, more was possible through advancing graphics technology; therefore more was possible contextually allowing for a possible older age range in gaming. The very definition of what gaming is in its time seems to reside on the technology of its time.

A glimpse into the future for Nintendo perhaps?

There is always the matter of game play over visuals, but ultimately Video games is technology and it is with new technology that we can expect the most likely groundbreaking games and new genres.

It has always been these games at the spear point of change that are often herald as the best games of all time or given that elusive 10/10 score which so many sites/ magazines hold for the best of the best. And rightly so, these games have more than the advantage of being state of the art, their usually ground breaking in content, opening up the possibilities for the ever expanding world of video games entertainment.

And now it seems we’re once again in the front line of gaming evolution. With the success of Nintendo’s Wii motion control, the physical practice of gaming has changed from its long running gamepad peripherals. The ease of use with it has also enabled the industry to expand into different age groups. Blu-ray game discs and DVD allow games to reach new heights in visual scope and scale. Gaming Graphics are getting closer to the CGI found in films allowing performance to be an attribute, such as that found in Heavenly Sword. Online multiplayer has reached a new mainstream audience with the successful online networks on consoles such as Xbox live. These are small advances compared to the jump from arcade to console, or 2D to 3D, but important ones that mould the current gaming generation into a more ’serious’ one. After all it was not too long ago when games consoles had names such as Mega Drive or Game Boy, names aimed for the toy market in comparison with the now family/adult targeted names of (DS) Duel Screen or Wii.

So what does the rest of the future hold for us? With Project Natal and 3D gaming on the horizon, we can be sure of some exciting developments in ‘what we play’, rather than the obvious ‘how we play’. Well, so long as it’s nothing like the Virtual Boy.

I personally, like to think the greatest turning point in gaming would be the implementation of full virtual reality or a Star Trek style ‘holodeck’ room in gaming. This could put gaming into a full mainstream phenomenon, even more so then it is now. And as for the first few games that are released on it, those will most likely change the ever debatable definition of video games.

-MarkBOSS

Let's face it. You would, wouldn't you?

This week for me has been internet-less, and will be for a little while. Real life has decided to kick in and I have been moving into a flat in London. With moving home comes sacrifice, and this week and maybe even next week, our beloved Plus XP won’t be having as much input from its Chief Editor than it has done in the past.

But all real-life things aside now, I have been thinking. There were games journalists back in the day who did not have Internet at all. They could not scout out the latest sites for news, or get the low-down on the next big gaming expo by just clicking a button. But then, were there big gaming expos before the Internet was around? Basically, what I am trying to ask here is: Has the Internet boosted the games industry?

The more I think about this question the more I am going to say hell yes. This is for a three reasons.

1) Game Advertising

You’re probably scouting out things on YouTube like kittens looking surprised or just re-playing the same clip of a guy getting a football to the face over and over. But then you suddenly see an advertisement for Modern Warfare 2 or GTAIV: Episodes From Liberty City and you think ‘Ooooo I must take a gander at that.’ Back before the Internet, what did game advertisement have? OK, so maybe TV advertising and possibly the occasional poster, but nothing else really. Ever since the Internet has spawned, you have the tubes of London covered in the latest game, or your TV screens suddenly littered with pretty graphics of the next new release. All because of the Internet and its powerful way of adverting, meaning that more games are sold, and PR can splash out on shiny TV ads and billboards the size of the Isle of Wight.

2) News as soon as it hits

Journalists back in the day got some game news, typed it out and then waited about a week before it could get published in their new gaming magazine. That was fine for the gamers back then, but today the Internet is our friend; as soon as journalists see or hear anything, ‘BAM!’ it’s up on your favorite gaming site. No need to leave your house/cave to go out and get the latest on gaming news, because quite frankly you can find it whilst getting your screen tan. This in turn then makes gamers hunger for the game more, and if they hunger more they will tell their friends until you have about seventy thousand pre-orders on Play.com - which brings me to my next point.

3) Internet Shopping

Play.com, Amazon, CD WOW. These are the shops out there on the fast plains of the internet that sell games, and believe me that’s is not all of them. If I were to list each site that sells games on the net, I would have to write a new post to list them all. Net shopping has boosted gaming sales because gamers hear about the game from their favorite gaming site, then suddenly zoom off to one of these online stores and click BUY NOW in a manner probably reminiscent of Andy from Little Britain, seriously I wouldn’t be surprised if some gamers out there do actually say ‘I Want That One’ when they click BUY NOW.

There are probably more reasons out there, but these are the main three that spring to mind. The internet is a vast cyberspace that covers the whole planet. So here is something for you to ponder. If the Internet wasn’t invented, would we be gaming like we are today? Would games be so popular?

This game wouldn't even exist...

After that episode me and Killer stayed friends for a long time. We made a forum called creatures of the night which was devoted to role playing and tag stories. He then later made a new forum devoted to the Devil May Cry series called Devils Never Cry and took on a new alias, he would be then known as Leon! And I instead of Razer would be known as Garvaos! And ever since we have been scouting out forums and such its been great.

Recently we are on The Ready-up.net forums. Awesome place all gamers welcome. We both love it there. There has bee a thread recently, interviewing the forum posters and Leon and myself have been on te chopping block. The idea is the forum genral public post 5 questions for you to answer. I loved doing and Leon and I  thought it would be a good idea to post our iterviews on here. Becuase the questions were that good.

so with out further ado. here is mine:

Pick your favourite game, and tell us what the worst thing about it is.

Good questions. First think I gotta think of is what is my favourite game :p. There is a few out there, so I’m gonna say Halo 3, me being the FPS nut that I am.
Thing is with halo 3 its a great shooter. It really takes me back to my Days of Doom against my dad (but with better graphics and stuff obviously) But one thing that has annoyed me about it and has done since Halo 2 really. Is the health and damage system. In halo 1 you had a health bar with a shield that replenished. I could live with that. At least you had a health bar. But in halo 2 and 3 its all about he regenerating shield. Having grown up with FPS games, I see this as a bit cheap, especially for people online who do nothing but fly around in banshees running people over and blowing them up. No skill kills I call them.

If there was any game you could have converted to a well made movie, which would you choose?

Game and well made movie, lets face it, it will never happen :p But that aside a game I would like to see made into a Good movie would have to be probably devil may cry but they have to at all cost get Dante down to a tee. I mean if he is acted badly or just doesn’t have the essence Dante has the whole movie has gone down the crap hole. But I still would remain sceptical if they did/do brig out a DMC movie. I can be very picky when it comes to game movie conversions. I mean Vin diesel as master chief still leaves me mighty confused.

Do you feel that the second-hand market for games should end? Considering the damage it does to game studios? Or is the survival of high street videogame shops more important to you?

To me on a weekend I do like going out to town and spending money. Lets face it its the only fresh air I’m gonna get for the week :p So to see high street stores like game fizzle out will be a blow (due to the fact hat all I would be doing then is going round clothes shops with my girlfriend :p) As I am a student at the moment, my philosophy is the cheaper the game the better, if I find something decent second hand I will pick it up. I also do like to trade in games when I can (but my collection has got to a point where it just isn’t happening anymore). But with all that now said, looking at the bigger picture I understand the damage this is doing to the game studios, and looking at my collection the games I have I have pretty ,much bought brand new so when I’m swimming in cash I would be happier to buy games brand new. Even if it does mean me going round the clothes shops for the rest of my weekends :p

If you had to choose one game from the past to get remade into the NexGen world, which one would it be and why?

Streets Of Rage! Man I love that game, grew up with it on the mega drive. To see a next gen of that game would be awesome. But what they would have to do is up the combat system some what. Make it a 3rd person action game. Like a hack and slash but with punches kicks and throws. Basically like the new watchmen game but good. I dunno why but I kind of see Street Fighter combo type moves mixed in. A bit like the level mode on tekken but more thought out and with intelligent enemy AI

What is your most tragic gaming moment…

Saving over save files are always the classic aren’t they. We have all had our fair share of them. But as for my most tragic gaming moment? It has to b when I was on the last level of starwars: The force unleashed. I think it was near the last boss at the time. Was really going for it ad then suddenly BAM My game freezes. No worries I though ill just turn the console off and on again. The console then freezes on the Xbox 360 logo screen, makes a funny noise and RROD Kicks in. On the last level of the force unleashed. I was so angry!

Forums are good fun. If your board head to Ready-up.net

-Garv

Just to give you a little brief taste of what fallout 3 offers. First person (always my favorite perspective, especaliy in genral everyday life :p) RPG ost apacolypitic zombie killing awesomeness. I love it so. Its very rare for me to find a good RPG. I love RPG games but they haveto engross me and alot haven’t. The only RPG games that have engrossed m to the point of never seeingthe outside again are Fable1+2, golden sun 1, Kingdom hearts 1 (untill i got the why the hell am i playing a disney come kids game which is surprisingly challenging reality check) Crisis Core final fantasy VII and of course fallout 3. I’ve tried FF 3, Blue Dragon, Golden sun 2, Kingdom hearts 2 and some othr i cant think of at the mo but they did not do anything for me.

Haven’t sunk my teeth into PoP yet but you gotta save these things. I’ll tell you more when i play it.

Well expect another update soon i feel another eview comeing on.

Every Pixel has meaning in Castlevania: SOTN

To me playing castlevania was like watching a painting come to life on screen. And tat is one of the man reasons even from just only playing it for an hour or so it will be down as one of the best games of all time.

I ten started thinking what other games I thought were quite amazing visually back when i was playing on the mega drive and on the pc. I then remembered one of my all time favorite mega drive games. Alienstorm, from what i remember the game play was very simple but the aliens looked pretty ghastly. I took the chance to look at some scree shots today to find that even though Alienstorm was a totally different game. It had the same attension to detail within the alien enemies.

eventhough its not on the same visual level as Castlevania, Alienstorm has great character detail

as you can see the aliens get a good depth of detail to get their lumpy texture across to the gamer. This is a great use of pixle art in my opinion.

Around the same time i was playing Alienstorm i was playing the classic Wolfenstein 3D on the pc (In ‘can i play daddy’ mode from what i can remeber. I was still pretty young) So for this blog i desided to find an image. In my opinion even though the visuals are good they are really nothing compaired to the likes of SOTN or the charater detail in Alienstorm. Maybe this was an earlier game? or Pixles just really dont work in an FPS game? I’ll leave that for you to deside.

wolfenstein 3D: Not using pixles to their full visual potencial in my opinion

So there you have it really. Retro games to me are like classic art works. And when they are done well i cant help but just stop playing the game for a few moments and take in the the visuals.

So why am i telling you all of this? Well recently on the gaming forum i regularly post on i was caught up in the classic conversation of “what makes a hard core gamer” to be honest the whole subject drives me nuts. I am one of these gamers who yes defiantly enjoys games and yes strives for the next xbox 360 achievement. But i wouldn’t want to give myself the title of hardcore gamer. I don’t see the point, to me it just sounds pretentious. Ok i understand the competitive nature of games but they are also a form of entertainment and help some if not most people to relax sometimes.

If you are interested and can’t be bothered to scout out the blog to find the reviews. here are some quick links in chronological order

Devil May Cry 4
Soul Caliber IV
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Starwars: The Force Unleashed
Viva Pinata
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Fable II
Bioshock
Castel Crashers
Warriors Orochi
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Mirrors Edge
Portal: Still Alive

Now I am getting into the flow of things i am going to be writing more reviews more often. There are still games in my collection that need to be reviewed so stick around for reviews on the darkness, ninja Gaiden and (why i haven’t done this game yet i don’t know why) Halo 3.

In other news I am going to be glued to Xbox live next week as the resident evil 5 demo is due for release this end of the world. Should be good to hack down some zombies in the good old fashioned rs evil way. Also in the next couple of weeks i will be uploading video for your viewing pleasure. I will be experimenting with the idea of video reviews. But as always i will still be writing the reviews the good old fashioned way.

Well with nothing more to say i will leave you all with your games!

Garv!

This is the one stop shop for gaming news, and reviews. So if you are interesting in Xbox 360 Gaming feel free to have a look. A website is underway at the moment and will be posted up as soon as it is finished.

Cheers.

Garv!