Well I acquired them all legally, you can be sure of that ...

“Red keycard?  Shit, where am I supposed to find that?  I haven’t shot anything in at least 30 seconds and my ctrl finger is getting itchy … bugger it: i-d-k-f-a and I’m on my way!”

I’d reckon anyone old enough to recognise that internal monologue had the exact same discussion with themselves at some point.  Something dawned on me recently that made me think about it again: the relationship between games and cheating has changed a hell of a lot since I first started playing.

Once upon a time it seemed pretty much every game had cheats built into it – all you had to do was find the right keystroke combination, probably from the cheats and codes pages of your favourite gaming magazine.

The thing that really made me start thinking about this was the recent blowup over Starcraft II players being banned from the game for life for using hacks and trainers in the game’s single-player campaign mode and Blizzard’s threats of legal action against some of the people responsible for developing them.

I’ll get back to that later but in the meantime, what’s changed?  At what point did we decide that, actually, we don’t like cheats any more?

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Write protect tabs, the original DRM

Remember tape? You know, that cutting edge media format that played music? Come on you know, before we became entrenched in the land of handheld gigabyte warehouses? Tapes were the beginning of piracy. We all remember the awful VHS piracy warnings on rental videos, but it was the audio cassette that really started it all. As a child every piece of music I owned was pirated, from my brother or my father or a friend; it was “taped” from the original vinyl or taped from another tape. We didn’t burn a copy we taped one, it was all very innocent, in fact I had no idea that what I was doing was in fact a nefarious and illegal activity.

I may be teetering on the edge of glibness with my loaded statements regarding the triviality of piracy; certainly the prevalence of piracy has skyrocketed in tandem with the ease at which digital data is copied. I got my first PC right on the lip of a breaking wave caused by the Doom (the 1993 one) revolution. I was given a copy of the game, freshly zipped onto six 1.44 inch floppies, from a friend; without a second thought I installed it and started playing, and it was great. That was the first of many games that were copied, installed and played without even considering that what I was doing was wrong, or even illegal. The idea that data could be stolen through duplication was so foreign to me because just like music, data is intangible and therefore in a very real sense it doesn’t exist, at least not in a “holding in my hand” sort of way that a thirteen year old understands.

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Are you a bad enough dude to battle the Flood?

The past twenty years has seen video games and the oft referred “geek culture” rise to a prominence that back in 1992 would never have been imagined, not even by the most fanatical zealot of electronic entertainment. Humble were the formative years of my gaming fascination, playing Super Mario Bros. at my friend’s house, whose parents spoiled him like milk in the sun. And then there were the many Sunday afternoons endlessly slaving over the greasy NES controller battling awful controls and hideous game mechanics for a measly 8 bit food pellet at the games completion. I’m sure I’m not the only one with fond memories of wasted weekends in willing servitude of these simple plastic game machines, and I bet none of us would change a thing. I can still remember playing Streets Of Rage 2 well into the night on my friends Megadrive, then swapping it over for my Super Nintendo to play the centipede boss in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past; all the while munching on popcorn and coffee beans (yes, we were strange).

I remember the magical awe I felt after we spent way too much money hiring a Japanese copy of Street Fighter 2 for SNES, playing against Balrog… or was it Vega? Who can remember, with the names being arbitrarily changed for the western market? Back in my hometown of Perth there was a store called Discount Video Games; I remember it was run by a middle aged super nerd in the front room of his house. The retailer specialised in imports, and rare and expensive games and consoles (Neo Geo anyone?). There was a demand from the obsessive; an unending desire for parity between arcade and the home console arena. Neo Geo was SNK’s answer; game cartridges the size of an ancient tome of knowledge with large digits identifying the (by the standards of the time) massive amount of memory in the plastic case, which as we all know reflects with pristine clarity the quality of the game. The carts were absurdly priced, as if by a madman with the crazy idea that there was a dollar per megabit system in place. (more…)

Another round against Eddie Gordo, sport?

If I took anything away from the recent Melbourne independent games festival Freeplay (other than a lingering hangover), it was that great things can happen when developers aren’t afraid to mess around with traditional gaming conventions.  For me one of the festival’s stand-out titles was Hazard: The Journey of Life, a philosophical first-person puzzler that created environments based upon impossible physics then used them as a metaphor for human existence.

It’s definitely worth checking out if that type of thing is your bag, but if Hazard sounds a little bit too … arty for your tastes, then maybe you’ll find something to enjoy in the following collection of indie games.  I’m an avid fan of unconventional games (and always partial to a well executed troll), and all of these titles certainly have their own unique take on what a game can be.

Now some of the games I’m about to list can reach dizzying heights of frustration, so it’s probably best that we begin with p0nd.  P0nd is a medatative relaxation game that teaches the player breathing exercises as they walk through a picturesque forest.  You could technically call it an art game, I guess, as the goals are never specifically stated and your success can only be gauged by the level of relaxation it affords you.  Just remember to breathe along with the game’s instructions for the best effect.

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Art on loan (and "slightly" altered) from museumofchildhood.org.uk

We’ve been hearing a lot about hardcore and casual gamers this week and, for once, not just in forum flame wars. The defining announcements coming out of E3 have primarily been catering towards the family market. Microsoft’s controller-less Kinect, Playstation’s motion controller Move and the sans-glasses 3D of the Nintendo 3DS are all products geared with an “everybody plays” approach.

Which has lead, perhaps understandably, to a lot of backlash from gamers and reporters alike. There’s been no question in anyone’s mind that Nintendo made far and away the best presentation this year, followed by Sony and then Microsoft in a far-distant third. While both the 3DS and the Move both demonstrated some interesting and innovative applications for core gamers, viewers could only sit bewildered as Kinect showed off a series of upgraded Wii-style games and training regimes. Playing jump-rope with a tiger, running up and down on the spot, air-steering a cart, while the tech might be somewhat impressive it was content for casual gamers and if you weren’t a fan of first-person shooters then it was really the only thing on show.

Which has reignited the time-tested argument over core and casual gaming once again. But before we all start screaming “fucking casuals” at our E3 recaps once again, maybe we should stop and think about exactly how casual all of our games have become.

A couple of months back Moose discovered his old Nintendo Entertainment System covered in a layer of dust in storage and, Moose being Moose, decided to come and clutter up my ever shrinking lounge-room with yet another console.  He was interested to see if, as a gamer, I’d retained my ability to play retro games or if I’d continually adapted my playing style to whatever platform was currently in favour.  To this end he made me play several games he’d had bundled up with the console: Solstice, Terminator 2 and The Adventures of Bayou Billy, just to name a few.

Long story short, I didn’t fare so well.  Over time the ability to save your game’s progress has become integral to me, and to play games now without it feels like a strange and unusual punishment.  (more…)

And the Lord spake: "This one! Saw this finger off!"

Spoiler alert: The following article contains a great many spoilers of plot points and choices someone can take while playing Heavy Rain. If you’ve not yet played the game, consider yourself warned. Also, if you’ve not yet played the game, well, you probably won’t be interested in what I’m talking about anyway.

When it was released, Quantic Dream’s interactive drama Heavy Rain received a wide range of reactions. While most reviewers (including us) were generally positive about the game and the experience it tried to create, it’s also quite well recognised that the game still had it’s flaws. One of those flaws, and the subject that I’d like to talk about today in this long, rambling diatribe, is the game’s slow pacing.

The game’s prologue puts the player in control of the most mundane of day-to-day tasks, like brushing your teeth, setting a table or even catching up on a character’s workload. Functionally, these rather dull acts serve as the player’s tutorial, giving them the basic run-down of how the game’s control system works and the variety of different ways that on-screen prompts have to be executed. Emotionally, on the other hand, what the game is trying to achieve is a crash course in bonding.

I’d argue that this bonding is actually far more important than the player’s introduction to the control scheme. When Heavy Rain is at it’s best, it creates a very deep empathy for it’s characters, and this means that the player’s reactions will be executed according to their personal feelings on a given situation. When the game successfully holds this empathy, it’s being played the way David Cage wanted it to be played, putting the player in the shoes of otherwise unfamiliar characters and asking you to make their choices for them.

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The greatest Bea Arthur lover to ever wear a mask ...

For those of you that are unaware, I like comics.  There’s no shame in it.  They’re awesome.  As such, from now on, I’m going to start writing about them.  Jess and I will also be doing a regular article regarding what’s new and what’s coming up in the world of the illustrated word!

Now, for those of you who did not see the Wolverine movie of late, Deadpool is yet another of Marvel’s anti-heroes.  He was created and grew to prominence in the late 80′s/early 90′s, right when The Punisher and Wolverine were at their violent peak.  Here’s a quick breakdown:  Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth (real name Wade Wilson) is a mercenary who has received a version of Wolverine’s much vaunted healing factor.  He was given this to counter a cancer which was ripping through his body.  The problem being that the healing factor is continually recreated cells to make up for the cancerous ones that are dying off … even those in his brain.  He is insane due to his brain continually growing over itself, but in a “cracks jokes whilst disembowelling people” kind of way.  He is, arguably, the best mercenary in the world, but due to his mental state is causing more problems than he should.

Okay, so now that you’re caught up I’m going to get straight to it: Deadpool is getting the biggest push of his franchise’s career, and it’s going to destroy him. As in the early nineties with The Punisher and Silver Surfer, Marvel is giving a multitude of titles to a character that simply cannot sustain them all.  Deadpool’s resurgance is due, in no small part, to the Cable & Deadpool series which was written perfectly by Fabian Nicieza.  It was a great title that worked well.  “Then why can’t the other titles?” I hear you ask.  First off, shut up.  This is my article.  Secondly, that title worked because the writer was perfect for the character.  Whereas, as is becoming very apparent, not every writer works quite as well with Deadpool.

Suited monkey with automatic machine pistols …

At the moment Deadpool is appearing in: Deadpool, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth and Deadpool Corps (just released). As well as that there are plans for a Deadpool Noir series, which places him in depression era. On top of all of that he is currently the cameo of choice, and is currently has a regular appearance in X-Men. It’s at this point that I tell you that I am writing not as an impartial reviewer, but as an impassioned fan: CUT DOWN HIS TITLES! As a result of his over-exposure The Punisher did not return to his former glory until the mid naughties. To be fair, I don’t feel he has returned to his glory and won’t for still some time to come. This is, without a doubt, Deadpool’s future unless something can be done.

Will Marvel heed this warning? No, they won’t. They’ll milk this puppy dry. Yeah, that’s right, they’re going to milk a PUPPY dry. How’s that for a mental image? The other problem being Deadpool will have his own movie coming out in the future, starring the perfectly cast Ryan Reynolds. Once this movie comes out, there will be a whole new group of people willing to buy whatever Deadpool’s name is attached to. Slowly, the purity will die away and we won’t see Deadpool on our shelves for a few years.

So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy Deadpool whilst you can. The newly released Deadpool Corps does not appear to hold much potential, but Deadpool and Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth are still solid. As I say this is the first of what should be many articles in regards to the world of comicdom. Until next time gentle readers … DC SUCKS!

Every copy of Imagine Horsez is doing a completely different kind of damage

Just when you thought this debate couldn’t get any fucking sillier…

First it was gamers being more dangerous than outlaw bikie gangs.  That was pretty hard to believe, right?  Well steel yourselves, because (a drumroll please) apparently the link between gaming and youth crime is even stronger than the link between smoking and lung cancer.

The abovementioned claim is made by Dr Wayne Warburton of the Council on Children and the Media in this news story aired on Channel 10 last night after he addressed a parliamentary inquiry on street violence.  He quotes a study claiming that “the average child in their childhood sees 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence”.  From this, we’re apparently meant to make the leap that games are more strongly linked to youth crime than smoking is to lung cancer.

If you go digging for a bit and pull out the Council on Children and the Media’s actual submission to the inquiry, however, you’ll find that the “gaming is worse than smoking claim” comes from one study done by an Amercian researcher that refers to violence in all media (TV, movies and music), not just games.  In fact pretty much every source Council references in their submission talks about television or the media as a whole, not games.

We also find that the claim about children “seeing 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence” is from another American study which refers specifically to television, not games.

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I enjoy playing games on a higher difficulty modes, it’s one of my many flaws. I say flaws because it’s this self-same trait in my gaming that has me hurling abuse at the TV screen while my wife shakes her head and quietly facepalms.

It can be quite frustrating in many games, being pinged twice then killed by someone you never noticed who seems to have pinpoint accuracy across amazing range. And there are many titles that you can be justified in feeling that the the game doesn’t offer you enough reason to go through that frustration. But I think I’ve finally discovered the game that deserves this kind of playthrough the most.

The Halo series, to an extent, popularised the health-bar free first-person shooter. And while the mechanic works well, allowing a player unlimited health as long as they can use cover to catch their breath, it does lend itself to a certain kind of gameplay. Tanking.

I did it myself in almost every previous Halo incarnation. If you played on a regular difficulty setting, there wasn’t much to stop you to just bum-rushing every group of enemies, then melee-bashing them into submission the moment you got close enough. This is fantastic fun, undoubtably, but it does remove the sense of caution and tactics that you’d exercise in a game like, say, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

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Even Letterman is getting tired of these

So it’s a slow news week.  Everyone in the upper echelons of gaming (with maybe the exception of already afflicted Jim Sterling) has currently come down with a case of swine flu after attending Penny Arcade Expo.  On top of this, overwhelming popularity has seen The Beatles: Rock Band sell out of almost every major video game outlet before poor little old me could snag a copy.

So I was wondering, what does everyone else resort to when they’ve run out of creativity for any given week.  Content tables need to be filled, we can’t just let our readers go back to actually playing games, can we?

Then it hit me.  LIST ARTICLES.  I can’t believe it took me so long to remember what you’re supposed to do when you start scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Now, gentle friends, don’t get me wrong, there are many fine examples of list articles done well.  You may even notice that for all my bitchy sarcasm I’m guilty of writing them myself (inb4 “hypocrite!”).  But I’ll give you a quick example of what my main beef is.  Open up a new tab for me, and wander along to http://digg.com/gaming.  Scroll down, and I can almost guarantee you that at least half of the articles stuck to the front page are “Top Ten x We All y” or “8 Reasons x y‘s z With a Candlestick in the Dining Room”.

So rather than just keep recycling the same old topics, let’s try this one: Gaming’s Top Ten Kinds of Overused “Top 10″ Lists.

Shall we proceed?

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