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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Advance Wars: Dual Strike review. Only reason it doesn't score higher = not all that different from the GBA games at heart. Still essential for DS owners, though.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 14:12
Monday, November 28, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Some things never change.
Earlier on today, Eurogamer posted up their review of the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 06: World to the World Cup. Everybody could probably already have predicted that the game'd be a load of shit - it's FIFA, what else do you expect - but it was still a fairly shocking verdict. Final score? 2/10.
That's not just bad, that's fucking absymal. I'd have guessed a 5, a 4 at worst, because reviewers tend to be blinded by new technology in action and reward games simply for looking nicer than previous examples. But no. 2/10.
And then, as quickly as it appeared, the review was removed. Excuse? "There's an embargo on the review of the european version in place until December 2nd. Oversight on our part"
Embargo. Despite the identical US version already being in the shops and already having been reviewed by others. What exactly do EA hope to gain from this? Anyone who reads Eurogamer has easy, immediate access to those other reviews, so it's not like their attempt at silencing Internet critics until the game's already in the shops will work. It just makes you hate them more for being such a bunch of cunts and screwing over consumers who aren't clued up.
The one magazine they granted the exclusive, pre-release review to? Scored it 8/10. What does that tell you about journalistic standards where videogames are concerned?
It's to be hoped that Eurogamer decided to 'accidentally' break their agreement with EA when they realised what a turd the game was. Given the lack of integrity amongst other critics, though, it seems unlikely.
Thankfully, enterprising individuals saved the review before it was removed from the site. Check it out here, then feel slightly disgusted whenever you hear somebody mention EA in future.
It's when companies pull stunts like this that you realise how worthwhile videogame message boards are. Despite their tendency to feature truly rancid off topic sections and the large number of trolls that they can attract, they're still by far and away the best places to find accurate criticism of the latest releases (well, until they start cosying up to certain developers, publishers or retailers, that is). Videogames = possibly the only medium where fansites offer the most worthwhile critical thought.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 18:53
Friday, November 25, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
Just finished and sent off a review of my latest obsession, iNiS' magnificent Nintendo DS rhythm actioner, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. By far and away my favourite game on the DS to date - I've got a thing for music games anyway, but this really is something special.
I'll link to the review when it goes up (obviously), but as a quick run-down of what makes it so exceptional:
- Totally individual visual design, everything drawn out like a manga comic, with the panels appearing on the screens in order and having some basic, KingRollo-style animation in them. Doesn't just look unique, but looks amazing at the same time.
- Gameplay that's as instincive as anything videogames have ever managed. The visual representation of the rhythms you need to hit out is perfect, letting you learn the patterns as though you were reading them off a strange new form of musical score.
- Precision and responsiveness of the touchscreen. Even the best bemani games have suffered at some point because of their controls. When it's not been the developers' fault, it's been as a result of the input device - Cool Cool Toon is made far more difficult than it should be because of the Dreamcast pad's poor analogue stick, Gitaroo Man suffers because of the same problem on the PS2's Dual Shock, Donkey Konga's bongos can fail to pick up hits if you go too easy on them. And so on. I've not had a single problem with Ouendan and the touchscreen yet, and I've finished it on the first three difficulty settings.
- Charm. The small stories in the game are either recognisable real-life situations that the player can empathise with easily, making hir want to perform well, or else they're wonderfully bizarre.
- *That* level. I'm saying no more. Play it and you'll find out.
- Soundtrack. I still can't get over the fact that a lot of bemani games manage to fall down on this one - it's as least as important as the control method, but the choice of music often seems like an afterthought. Not so here - every single song on here is brilliant. It's perhaps not surprising, as they're all re-recordings of songs that have previously been hits in Japan. Still, they're all great.
So yeah. I've already written far too much about this game, here and elsewhere, and I'm unlikely to stop for the foreseeable future. I get a bit overexcitied about a lot of videogames, I know, which makes it that much more difficult for people to pick up on when I consider something to be right up at the top of the pile. Just trust me on this one.
Need further convincing? Brilliantly, another fan of the game has gathered all the original versions of the songs it uses and stuck the compilation up as a torrent - get it here. I can't stop listening to it. Current faves have to be Shanghai Honey, Koi no Dance Site, Thrill and Atsuki Kudou no Hate, but all are superb.
Best videogame soundtrack ever? Best videogame soundtrack ever.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 01:22
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
I've got a review of Taito Legends up there now, too.
It might bring up the question of what sort of thing I'd want to see from collections of classic videogames. The answer's pretty simple - just look at Sonic Jam on the Saturn.
From the start you know that you're playing a compilation that's been created by a team of people who love and respect the material they're dealing with - it's not all that surprising, given that it's a Sonic Team project, but still, it's so far in advance of anything else like this that it's almost unfair to compare it to other collections. The most obvious bit of presentational pizazz is the frontend - where you'd generally have a fairly static menu screen from which to make your choices, here you're given a (then) current-gen interpretation of a section of the original game to play around in. It's even got a small selection of minigames to play around the small 3D world/menu.
Then you add onto that all the extra material that's stuffed onto the CD. The best TV ads for all the games from all territories. Scans of the boxart from all territories. Promo art. Design sketches. Then, when you get to the games themselves, you find that not only are they presented in their original form, but Sonic Team have also provided a couple of alternate, rejigged versions of each game. The changes are minor - the addition of moves from later games in the earlier ones, easier modes, that sort of thing - but they're very welcome.
It's this collection that the rest still have to beat for all-round attention to detail. Sure, the Taito pack contains more playable content, but that's piss-easy to include - once the creation of the emulator is done and dusted (and considering that the creator of MAME is credited as being on the development team responsible for the compilation, I'd say it's a pretty safe assumption that the emu on the disc is using more or less exactly the same code) all Empire had to worry about was choosing which ROMs to download off the Net. £20 for all those games is something of a bargain for the consumer, but it's money for nothing for the publisher.
E. Randy Dupre's brain told him to write this at 18:09
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Losing the fight against mediocrity for the last few years. Fire a volley |
