Eurogamer Expo 2011

Rich

Surprisingly, last week PEOWW managed to get off of the couch, assemble a few of the writers and get our arses down to the Eurogamer Expo in Earls Court, London. The expo ran for four days and dozens of titles were exhibited. We’ll leave the PR stuff to sites that can string together complete sentences without calling anyone a cocksucker and will do what we do best: talk about the games.

PS Vita

Blagging our way in with press passes, we had a choice right away. Join the OnLive queue, dive into Skyrim or Batman: Arkham City or get onto the PS Vita. Whichever one we chose would mean a shitload of queueing for the others and we’re not the type to queue. The biggest scoop would seem to be the PS Vita so we dived into that queue. Besides, it had the cutest PR chicks and if you’ve ever been to a games expo before it’s usually 95% sweaty men, 5% fat chicks with blue hair so breaking up that monotony is always a good idea.

The Sony folks made you pick a card like a sort of evil Derren Brown that can’t market a console to save its lives anymore. Pick a card and that’ll be the game you get to try out. Two of us went in. Andy got Wipeout and I got some shit called Little Deviants. Gutted. It wasn’t even a game about Karen Matthews other twenty kids.

However, the game actually turned out to be a brilliant showcase for the Vita’s numerous control setups. It started out with a mode that played a little like Marble Madness except that you use the touch pad on the back of the console to create hills and waves that roll the ball around. Initially it was ridiculously tricky but it gets more intuitive as you go along. The pad itself was extremely responsive and the potential for genuinely new gameplay ideas is huge.

They followed it up with modes that use the touch screen, tilt controls and of course the standard analog and buttons setup. The analog sticks (yes, not nubbins anymore) felt great if a little loose (in a PS3 pad kind of way) certainly better than the original PSP nubbins and, for my money, better than the 3DS analog slider. A quick go on Wipeout confirmed that these controls are perfectly capable of handling action games.

With decent analog controls and the console quality graphics, those of you who want to try out the PS3 exclusives but can’t be arsed with a PS3 may well want to wait on this.

Arkham City had some of the biggest queues at the Expo.

Get ready to burn me as a heretic but I didn’t get the mass love-in of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Strip out the Batman flavouring and it just seemed like any number of roaming beat em ups, a genre that is ten-a-penny on consoles these days. That said, the E3 previews of Batman: Arkham City looked interesting, especially with the outdoor sections and so this was my first port of call on the second day.

After too much cutscene bollocks (you only get ten minutes on this before they kick you off) you finally get into the action. The combat was much as expected with lots of fast flowing fighting that, as with the first game, seems to play itself – a feeling that was confirmed when Paul and Gareth turned up and I was able to continue fighting whilst looking at them and talking.

However, the free-roaming grappling and gliding outside in the city was very entertaining, echoing Crackdown to some degree. Fans of the original won’t be disappointed and Arkham City may even win over some new fans as well.

Gareth Dark Souls I never got around to completing Demon’s Souls. I reached the third area and someone invaded my game and despite me managing to fight him off and kill him I was so annoyed that on my first attempt at a new dungeon some random attacked me that I stopped playing. However, I’m looking forward to Dark Souls and I managed to get a go on the demo. I can’t tell you everything that happens in the demo because I took over from someone else who’d played a bit so I don’t know what I missed in the beginning and neither did I finish it. I was fighting my way through waves of skeletons before three showed up (I’d only fought two at a time before this) and a giant one as well who killed me in one swing so I let someone else have a go. From that description though if you’re a fan of Demon’s Souls you should be happy. The controls seem to be exactly the same (hard to say for sure because the demo was running on a 360) with attack and defence mapped to the shoulder buttons and when you die you leave a little glowy patch that you have to return to to regain your full strength. Being a demo the RPG parts weren’t that obvious but I have no reason to believe that is any different to Demon’s Souls either. Seriously, ‘spiritual’ sequel my arse. This is Demon’s Souls again, but also on 360. Fans of the original and 360 owners who like tough, unforgiving, but ultimately rewarding games rejoice. There was also a giant raven/crow thing. It didn’t attack me, it was just perched above me but I imagine it was there for a reason and I’m looking forward to finding out what that reason is early next month. Ninja Gaiden 3 With Itagaki not at the helm of the new Ninja Gaiden I was both a little worried and hopeful for Ninja Gaiden 3. Ninja Gaiden 2 seemed a little too harsh to the point of being cheap and judging by interviews that seemed to be Itagaki’s goal, so with him now gone and Yosuke Hayashi in charge maybe the difficulty would still prove a challenge but a fair one. On the other hand what if Itagaki gave Ninja Gaiden its X factor? The thing that made it fun despite it punishing you at every turn. From the demo I played my fears are quelled for now. QTEs have been introduced but they aren’t awful and are generally intuitive, the gore has been toned down (though it’s still very gory) but it’s far more common for your opponent to writhe around in pain now and even beg for their lives (there’s talk of trying to humanise Ryu Hayabusa by making his actions have consequences) and you no longer pick up glowing orbs to replenish your health or charge your special attack, that seems to happen just by killing and when Ryu’s arm glows it’s ready to pop. The core gameplay is still a lot of fun though and all Ryu’s moves seemed to connect with a satisfying amount of force. The camera swings about quite a bit which adds to the excitement (although it does feel like the game is playing itself at times) but as is the norm for these types of games you will often be attacked from off screen. I was playing on Normal mode and it seemed very easy, I completed the demo having been hit only a few times and when I was it didn’t do much damage but even in the demo there are higher difficulties so Master Ninja fans should be catered for as well hopefully when the final game comes out. Now I can safely say I’m looking forward to it. Resident Evil: Revelations Having only dabbled with the 3DS at the event my first true experience was with Resident Evil: Revelations. The first thing I noticed was how quickly my eyes adjusted to the 3D compared to other games, even if the effect wasn’t so obvious as something like Zelda. The second thing was the graphics, which are excellent and an obvious relative to Resident Evil 5. I took a second to adjust to the controls thanks to the size of the handheld itself but if you’ve played a modern Resi title you should be right at home here. Not that this seems to be exactly the same as that, ammo was in very short supply in the demo and the enemies that featured (Silent Hill style beige things with massive arms and floppy heads) soaked up bullets like nobody’s business. There were also a few puzzles squeezed into the short demo (using the stylus, natch) and you had to search the area pretty thoroughly in order to progress. This is obviously an attempt at bringing back the old school style of Resi, despite having the over the shoulder camera angle and high precision aiming, if you’re low on ammo you’re going to be forced to flee at times which should hopefully keep tension high. It’s too early to say how successful this will be but Resident Evil: Revelations remains the one 3DS game that truly interests me and hopefully it works, is a success and forges a path for new/old style Resi games on consoles as well. Hands on with Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect 3 RPGs never work as demos, how can you give anyone a sense of progression in a fifteen minute demo? You can’t, so demos tend to concentrate on the combat which isn’t usually anything special. Mass Effect 2 blurred the lines between third person shooter and RPG (a little too much in my opinion) and it seems Mass Effect 3 is going to continue that. There were three choices of class in the demo, Soldier, Engineer and Sentinel with Liara and Garrus as your squad mates. The demo charges you with protecting a female Krogan as she ascends in a lift from waves of Cerberus troops. Mordin is also there barking advice to you and telling you if the Krogan is in any danger. You fight off three waves, climbing ladders between each wave to keep up with the lift before a giant mech strolls out for you to take on. Once that is done the demo ends. All in all it felt like ME2. As per usual someone had left the demo unfinished so I picked up the controller and was playing as a Soldier class Shepard and I found it quite easy to play it as a run and gun shooter (not how I’ll play the final game) but obviously with the difficulty options that will be available in the final product this won’t be such an issue. Despite Mass Effect 2 not being a slouch in the looks department ME3 looks considerably better and the upgrade trees also seem to be more in depth than ME2, with the ability to upgrade specials in different ways so the balance between gameplay styles will hopefully be spot on with the final game of the trilogy. It seems generally speaking things are moving in the right direction in the right areas, and therefore, roll on March 2012.

Up next was Ridge Racer Unbounded. This straightforward demo didn’t stray too far from the usual formula and would have been easier if I wasn’t still in Burnout Paradise mode (having maxed that out a couple of weeks ago) and determined to race in the oncoming lane. One very nice touch was the projected score and position information against buildings, Splinter Cell: Conviction style. If you’re looking for an arcadey, extremely zippy racer, this looks like a decent bet.

Other demo machines hidden in the dark corners of the venue were;

Inversion (a very standard third-person shooter that would have bored us to tears except that it had a tricky gravity mechanic to it. It still looked pretty average though. Dead Space did it better and that was dull as pisswater. The demo level was a rocky, lava-based affair so they’ve got the ripping off Gears of War thing down too.

Another Tekken game. Possibly the most underwhelming thing at the Expo.

Tekken Hybrid (actually Tekken Tag Tournament HD, the ‘Hybrid‘ name refers to the fact that it is bundled with some bullshit Tekken anime on the same Blu Ray disc) was astonishingly average in all respects. Playing exactly the same as the original Tekken Tag Tournament but with hi-def graphics that seem to be hi-def versions of the original designs and therefore very ordinarily and quite dated. We guessed that the Hybrid name refered to some sort of PSP cross-over functionality (hence the plain graphics) but nope it’s just gash. All the characters seemed to be present and correct but Tekken‘s been irrelevant for years now.

Supremacy MMA may well have been the most pointless game of the show. As with real mixed martial arts, it’s all about the UFC. EA tried, and failed hard, to enter the octagon with EA MMA and got tapped out effortlessly and now Supremacy MMA is having a go with a roster of nobodies. The combat itself was stripped down and fairly ordinary with stiff character models exhibiting no real sense of impact or damage.

PES2012 and FIFA were present as they are due to go head to head over the next couple of weeks. Both games have demos on the two proper consoles but we took a quick look at PES2012, having written it off from the pretty awful demo. It was seemingly the full version and so we (Andy and I) played as North West London (QPR) and Northwich C (Norwich City) battling to half-time before getting bored. Unfortunately PES still feels sluggish and mechanical. The lack of team names is understandable but the fact that they make no effort on the kits (when given absolute carte blanche to do whatever they like outside of the licensing) is still pretty lazy.

Paul Weedon Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D I’ve always been of the opinion that console to handheld transitions never really work all that well. Sure, the Gameboy Advance had its occasional blips of success, but otherwise I remain fairly sceptical about the whole thing. Sadly, MGS3’s transition doesn’t look as though it’s set to do much to waylay my scepticism, as, from what I could glean from my very fleeting encounter, it’s a bit of a shambles. The problem here certainly isn’t an aesthetic one. Visually at least, Snake Eater on the 3DS is up to scratch and the 3D elements, albeit eye-breakingly disconcerting, seem to open themselves up well to the game’s jungle environments. The problem here lies with the fact that this is clearly a game designed to be played on a console with a pad, and the 3DS, in spite of its intuitive design, simply just isn’t kitted out properly to accommodate the complex control scheme of a Metal Gear Solid title. Even in a slightly dumbed down format the gameplay is incredibly cumbersome, a fact that isn’t helped by the fact that Konami seem to have inexplicably retained many of the camera issues that blighted the PS2 version back in 2004. Given that Sony’s analogue arrangement leaves much to be desired, it’s not often that I’m quick to praise them in terms of their game-related output, but to their credit at least the DualShock makes Snake Eater vaguely playable. I suppose to some extent Konami are to be commended for trying something as technically ambitious as this at such an early stage in the 3DS’ lifespan, but, for the time being at least, it doesn’t look as though that gamble is about to pay off any time soon. All these other games can fuck off. All we really want is for Future Soldier to be good. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier By far one of the more exciting things we had a chance to play at Eurogamer, the long awaited sequel to one of the best games on the 360 is shaping up to be something very special indeed. Sadly, we only got a chance to play a portion of one of the adversarial modes, but this nevertheless offered sufficient insight in to what we can expect from the game’s co-op modes. And, let’s face it, that’s all we really care about here at Peoww. Everything we’ve come to expect from the series is present and vastly improved. To this day Advanced Warfighter remains a perfectly good looking game, an impressive feat given that it’s nearly five years old now, and whilst the sequel didn’t exactly offer up much in terms of visual upgrades, Future Soldier looks set to deliver that in spades. New additions include an intuitive multiplayer cover system, much needed for co-op but previously lacking in the Advanced Warfighter titles, whilst Ubisoft appear to have taken a leaf out of every FPS on the market right now and added the ability to run. Small additions they well may be, but overall the game is looking considerably more polished than its forebears. Whilst previous entries in the series suffered from a visibly slower framerate when it came to the multiplayer modes, Future Soldier has upped the ante, now delivering a consistently lovely array of visuals in keeping with the game’s single player modes. Overall, it’s all shaping up rather nicely. Our only real gripe is that it’s not due out for another six months or so.

Shockingly we gave up on Skyrim to join the PS Vita queue (despite being literally five mins from getting a go) but we were stood right by the demo consoles and it was immediately evident that it’s Oblivion but prettier. With a sword in one hand and a flame in the other, the combat seemed to be what you’d expect from an Elder Scrolls game. Whatever happens, we’re all over this when it gets released.

One game that we were able to walk right up to was Rage, the latest thing from iD (the chaps behind Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein).  That was thanks to them having a lot of demo machines set up but also down to a slight lack of interest from the floor.  The demo had three sections to it and after wandering around one of them trying to find something to kill, we settled on an arena-styled level that played and looked a little like the risible Mad Moxxy DLC from Borderlands.

Rage is a fast, post-apocalyptic FPS with silky smooth graphics but the setting looks dull, no matter how much grunt you put into the graphics engine, and the gameplay was tired and generic.  Three parts Metro 2033 to two parts Borderlands but somehow less fun than both those games.  Early impressions for this game are that it’s what happens when programming geeks try to be funny.  We’ll be avoiding it.

A potential ‘game of the Expo’ was the long-awaited Saints Row: The Third. The sequel to our favourite gangster sandbox-em-up, SR3 looked familiar while ramping up the action with more customisation options, some incredibly inventive weaponary (a giant dildo and laser-targeted airstrikes) and some crazy finishing moves in the melee combat.  There wasn’t any sense of mission structure in the demo but the core gameplay was very impressive indeed.  If you’ve played the previous games, this doesn’t stray too far from the series but the game will be looking to put the pressure on GTA5 from the get-go when it comes to all-out fun.

Cale Batman: Arkham City Well despite only getting twenty minutes of playtime (and about half of that spent watching unskippable cut scenes, grrr!) I reckon this could well be in for a solid ten out of ten when we get to play the full game. Arkham City is both huge in terms of scale but in detail with rooftops filled with Riddler challenges, destroyable security cameras and roaming gangs giving out tit bits of information about side quests and general happenings. Best bit: Harley Quinn’s reapperance. The queue for Battlefield 3. No thanks. Battlefield 3 Wow, this was a big disappointment. The PC version is looking teh sex despite having to use EA’s shitty Origin software but the 360 version still has the same old Battlefield control problems with lag input and botched stick acceleration both rearing their ugly heads while the visuals looked washed out with blocky textures and monochromatic lighting making spotting enemy soldiers the biggest challenge. Best bit: Leaving the EA section to go play GRFS. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Well after months of no information GRFS finally surfaced to spew molten gaming jizz right in our faces leaving us begging for more. Going against the grain of current games it eschews the run and gun action of Battlefield or Call of Duty for a more considered, tactical model that rewards planning and teamwork rather than ADD reflexes and auto-aim exploitation. Best bit: Slowly flanking around a pack of camping snipers to give ‘em a 9mm enema. Halo: Anniversary Well it’s Halo made all shiny but still filled with the same hateful gameplay that’ll attract horrid cunt players as ever. If you’re the kind of person that knows what MJOLNIR stands for you’ll love this.  Otherwise keep the fuck away. Best bit: Watching some fat fuck get so excited he fell of his stool playing this.

Gareth and Rich on SWOS playing as Welsh and Ukrainian pub sides respectively.

Aside from all these modern efforts, the expo also reserved some space for the chaps from R3PLAY, the Blackpool-based retro expo that we visited last year and is on again in November, and they were exhibiting various retro consoles and handheld devices.  Our personal highlight was Sensible World of Soccer which was running on an Amiga A600.  Horribly clammy joystick aside, the game’s still got it.

There was also a small area reserved for indie developers.  Our indie highlights were the Snake-inspired Hard Lines (available on iOS for both iPods and iPads) which was ridiculously addictive for what was basically Snake with bells and whistles and also Fotonica, a beautiful modern twist on the ‘running man’ genre (the most notable example of which is Canabalt) but in a first-person perspective and with some gorgeous Rez-style graphics.  Check it out HERE.

Ian Ace Combat: Assault Horizon It was the Ace Combat you’re familiar with. There was either a gunship mission (that seemed to oversimplify the helicopter controls to the point of it having kiddie wheels) or a fighter mission in which you take on lots of enemies in ex-Russian jets trying to blow the shit out of Miami or some generic American coastal city. Nice ground detail anyway, but since the game is obsessed with jets and missiles you won’t spend much time looking at the scenery. Maybe it was the shitey Dualshock3, but I didn’t really get on with the controls. You first get into a turning battle with an approaching bogey, only once you’re in close vicinity can you enter what seemed to be an entirely superfluous dogfight mode. This was just a minigame which let you lock your unlimited missiles on for a guaranteed hit. It seemed to be a repetitive affair, the enemies only really differentiated by one designated an ace, although that just meant they turned quicker. I got bored after fifteen minutes and got my free t-shirt with a simple Namco logo plastered over the chest. No doubt the game will be proficient enough when it’s released although if it’s anything like previous releases it’ll be DLCd up the wazoo with all kinds of hentai plastered over the planes. As for the t-shirt, when I went to wear it the next day I was overwhelmed by the stench of chemicals no doubt used for its production so it had to go in the wash before being worn. There’s probably a metaphor of some kind there but I can’t be arsed to come up with it. Mario Kart 3DS It was Mario Kart on the 3DS. It’ll sell shitloads. Well, given how relatively unsuccessful the 3DS has been, it’ll sell reasonably given the lack of buyers. Maybe I’m stuck in the past, but Mario Kart was fantastic on the SNES and everything since (bar the stellar Super Circuit on GBA) has been but a pale imitation. I spent more time playing Mario Kart in the Retro corner of the show than the five minutes I spent on the 3DS incarnation. Meh. Mario Bros 3DS After the watered down bullshit that was New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros Wii, the next decent Mario game after the twin Galaxies (Steve Wiebe need not apply) could well end up being on the 3DS. Again, it’ll sell well but unlike Mario Kart didn’t leave me feeling uninspired. Sure, the camera needs a bit of work, but it could well be a return to form. Although maybe I’m not the target audience ’cause it was reminiscent of Super Mario 64 but without the freedom of movement the N64 classic gave you in 1997. It was around this time that my eyes spazzed out and the game became unplayable. It may have been the fixed position of the console in the demo pod or it may have been the wanky 3D implementation. Either way I’m not convinced on this evidence.

So there you have it. A run-down of a lot of games. There are no real surprises here. The same old franchises and a couple of not very confident looking newcomers. We were disappointed at the no show of Aliens: Colonial Marines and we had our hearts set on finding Vicious Cycle (the fucking no-marks who wrecked the Earth Defense Force series) but they’ve long since given up supporting that fucking lemon.  But with Skyrim, Mass Effect 3 and Saints Row: The Third all looking spiffy, we’re happy enough.  Also, none of us queued up for Modern Warfare 3 because, you know, fuck that bollocks. But we’re happy to tell you that it looked exactly like Modern Warfare 2. Like, exactly.

Colin

This is none of your E3s, CESs, TGSs or Leipzigzigzigs, this is Glasgow on a cold wet and dreary Sunday morning in February. This is proper gaming dedication.

Nintendo started advertising these “Exclusive Nintendo 3DS pre-release events” over the past month, events where the average punter can have the chance to “experience the 3DS magic” – what this would entail is anyone’s guess. This was free and being that the only similar event I’ve had a chance to attend was the 2009 Edinburgh Interactive Festival which was quite frankly light on things to do and a bit pants – I jumped at the opportunity to attend and registration was a relatively simple matter, I booked my tickets and off we went.

How's that Performing Arts degree working out for you, lads?

There’s about a dozen of us here at 10 in the morning, unaware of exactly what to expect and whether it’s actually a waste of time but frankly there’s a tingle of excitement in the air and along with my companion (a handheld gamer for the better part of her life whose recently upgraded to more intensive xbox 360 fun) we venture upstairs.

Tickets are scanned and we are briefly introduced to the history of Nintendo handhelds. You wouldn’t be wrong in saying that the event organisers exactly know their target audience, by that I mean it seems that just about everyone involved in the event just so happens to be slim, leggy, attractive women with ‘sizable assets’ and tarted up to high heaven (with skin tight clothes) – Not that I was paying that much attention to them you understand. These ladies serve to be our guides for today but frankly if there’s a chance we actually do get to see the 3DS today I don’t think anyone would care if they all wore bags on their heads.

Our ‘guides’ start telling us about the 3DS, about its interactive features and how communication is more important than ever. Street pass allows the devices to constantly communicate with others in the vicinity, sharing game data, music playlists (apparently), Miis and so on – nothing new learned so far but of course they can’t assume that everyone is a spotty bod like me.

We are led through to a small darkened room with a fella looking suspiciously like Ryu from Street Fighter, standing in front of a background with a few props to hand – and yes, things do start to get a bit cheesy. Ryu and the newly arrived Ken started to fight… to the sound of SF special effect sounds. I can’t help myself (even as writing this) but a massive grin creeps across my face. After the brief performance we have an opportunity for photographs with the stars and nearly a week on I so regret not getting mine taken.

People at a thing.

In small groups of five we’re then bundled along a corridor with more actors – It’s Chris Redfield and his sister Claire! “There’s an outbreak of the T-Virus!” (I thought we were past that in the Resi franchise now) and they’re gonna lead us to safety. It felt like a short, cheap and cheerful Alien Walk – especially when some ‘thing’ grabbed my ankle. It was stupid fun! even if a little inaccurate – I’m sure I saw one of the chainsaw men, they’re Las Plagas creations, not T-Virus [/geek]

I suppose the point of it all was to show how we are no longer limited to the 2D plane and things can be more interactive than ever, or perhaps it was just to cheese us out big style but frankly I loved it.

Next up – Wossy. Many years ago Iain Lee was the poster boy for videogaming in this country, personally though many feel Charlie Brooker is the contemporary equivalent – except a million  times better but JR seems to be the go to guy when something is needed whored or insulted for that matter. He’s on a giant TV spouting his usual brand of pish but this time with a Nintendo slant. He seems enthusiastic enough but I’m sure for the right price he could sell us on the virtues of blowing a baboon.

Well the 3DS appears to have fucked Wossy's eyes.

After a short video reel of upcoming games we are apparently going to get our hands on several different features of the Nintendo 3DS, which I almost cannot believe.

Firstly – The games. Practically each machine has one of the aforementioned leggy/slim/tarted-up ‘guardians’ (with sizable assets and skin tight clothes) watching your every move – asking if they can help like an over enthusiastic game shop employee. I’m not exactly the atypical speccy, nerdy, socially awkward gamer, but at the same time I don’t need or want to be bothered while gaming.

The machine is comfortable to hold and intentionally doesn’t seem too different from the traditional DS. As I’m sure everyone is aware the setup is much the same with a few minor changes. Start and select are along the bottom now, the new analogue nipple feels silky smooth and effortlessly glides at my will (nowhere near as elastic as the PSP’s). The 3D effect is quite impressive; as I’m sure many are aware it works by having a multi-layered screen showing slightly different images thus giving the illusion of depth. Last year I was initially irked to learn that the 3D effect only works when the device is held at the right distance and directly in front of you, but it felt very natural and comfortable seeing as I was just holding it how I normally would.

The 3D effect can be turned off from the depth slider and I constantly found myself doing this for a number of reasons. I was curious to compare how the experience compared going from ’3D’ to ‘standard’ mode and my conclusion is that while the 3D experience is interesting I’m not too sure how it will fare long term and if game developers will make full use of the potential.  The other reason for turning the feature off was more to do with my own comfort. At times I found it difficult to focus on the action when so much is happening at once and on more than one layer. This didn’t bother me as I found the 3D effect to be more impressive when I wanted to see it.

Pilotwings: still getting us excited after all these years.

The games available to try were:

Ridge Racer: Pretty much as you’d expect with fun slip-n-slide racing with more boosting than you can shake a nitro at.

Dead or Alive: Watching boobs jiggle has never been so fun – now in 3D! (oh God I hope no-one takes that comment on face value – Ed)

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries: Again it’s pretty much all that you can imagine – Plenty of fun to be had especially if you liked the mercenaries mode in previous Resi games. Particular note goes to the analogue controls which made me feel like I was back playing RE4 on my Gamecube

Street Fighter 4: Impressive graphics and with the ability to pull off super moves with just a tap of the touch screen looks like even a shocking clumsy fool could have a lot of fun.

Pilotwings: Its pilotwings.

Kid Icarus: What was essentially an on-rails shooter seemed to demonstate a few interesting features. Firstly, while the flying and shooting can be controlled just by moving the on screen cursor, it was possible to use a combination of the touchpad and the analogue stick to allow separate flight and aiming controls, much like how the DS tried to use this mechanic for FPS shooters. It worked quite well here and will be interesting to see how fluidly it can be incorporated into other games. Secondly, the 3D visuals although constantly active worked less well with individual enemies flying at the screen and much better when faced by one huge boss attacking and flailing towards you. As said previously not all games will suit this technology and the ability to turn the 3D effects off is welcomed.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time: I don’t know many gamers who haven’t at least played this one but as ever, it was a joy to once again be back inside the Great Deku Tree. Inventory access is now via the bottom screen and as such the experience feels more comfortable. I think the 3D effects will be enough to get me to travel back to Hyrule to experience the world again from a slightly different perspective.

3D isn't always better than 2D.

All the games handled very well and graphically look (somewhat) superior to the DS, while it’s obviously still not on par with PSP levels of graphics Nintendo never set out to match their rival in this way, infact I’m not even sure they’re competing with each other at all.

After a while we are shuffled into the next (more appropriately lit and without annoying thumping dance music) room. Here there are still games and demos to try but we look at some of the other 3DS capabilities.

Knowing very little about Augmented Reality (AR) technology I was interested to learn a bit more about it, unfortunately the ‘guardian’ could only go as far to say “you put the card down and the game starts in a few seconds”. The programming for the game must be built into the system or on an SD card because as I understand it, the card only serves as an area for the camera and AR game to focus on. The games themself work very well; little more than mini games but hopefully opening the way for more innovative ones. I was shooting targets that I had virtually appeared on the table and then at a giant dragon swiping at me, all the while using the system’s gyroscopic controls to rotate around the virtual environment, aim and even duck and weave at the incoming attacks. Gyro-controlled games like these work great on the iPhone, so more on the 3DS will be a welcome addition.

Face Raiders is another simple yet enjoyable game that is great at showing off the machine’s features. You take a picture of your face which then spawns your face as enemies and using the gyro controls you aim and then fire balls at your face – a surreal experience that Freud would have a field day over, all the while your grinning chops mock you from a few crude yet mirth-inducing expressions.

Here we also saw a few running videos on the system, MGS3 looks as fine as you can imagine and in addition to seeing some Sky Sports Ryder Cup action (which looked as crisp as it would on my iPhone) I am briefly told about the possibility to surf the web using the 3DS – unfortunately I don’t get to try it but the prospect is very appealing, a feature that never really took off with the original DS.

Things were wrapping up as I saw the camera station and as such couldn’t spend much time with it. From what I could garner the internal camera is very much on part with the current DS one. You’re not going to snapping sea turtles laying their eggs with it or anything so understandably the quality isn’t brilliant. From what I saw just before leaving the external cameras aren’t too different quality wise, the difference being that the positions of these cameras allow for taking 3D pictures.

Overall this event was a great experience for me and even my companion too. In one hour I was greatly entertained and best of all my curiosity about the 3DS has been partly satisfied but my impressions on the machine are still developing.

On one hand, it’s a new piece of tech from a tried and tested company, they’ve taken a new feature and already created a few interesting games with it. Online seems to have had more focus than before with a proposed easier way to connect to friends, share data, game online and hopefully as mentioned – surf the web. While the device may not be released with all of its features such as the eShop, there’s still more than enough to keep people busy.

On the other hand, the technology is a bit gimmicky, I’m not too sure how many companies will take full advantage of these features – that’s even if a decent software base can be established. With these new features the device hasn’t really had the chance to evolve graphically which may put some off. Pricing has caused some controversy and if the games move too far north in price the company won’t be doing themselves any favours. Oh and maybe I’m just plane thick but I honest to god couldn’t find where the stylus was. I doubt Nintendo will be going down the route of using their forthcoming eShop to release the kind of cheap and cheerful games we are seeing on more and more mobile phones, not if a recent quote from Reggie Fils-Aime is to believed. This could hurt them unless we see some really quality titles in the eShop, with a sensible price tag.

The hour is over, some HMV staff plead with us to pre order a Nintendo 3DS, we leave. I was impressed with the machine and the show put on in general and this is coming from a somewhat bitter and cynical gamer. In the lead up to launch it will be interesting to hear more impressions from people who aren’t quite like me – is the price right, are the launch games good, what about that battery life, eh? My companion had her own opinion – “extraordinary graphics”, “unbelievably good 3D effects” but with a certain degree of possible “motion sickness from the 3D”, luckily rectified by switching to 2D mode.

I’m sure I will get a Nintendo 3DS this year but whether or not that’s at launch is still undecided. While everything I saw impressed me no end, games make a system so only time will tell if a Nintendo 3DS is a really worthwhile purchase.

Gone But Not Forgotten.

Dijon

You’re in a pub with a bunch of geeks, it’s late evening and you’re all on your second pint.  Chances are that sooner or later when you’ve finished talking about the latest movies or whether or not X-Factor is indeed the coming of the second anti-christ, you can guarantee somebody will bring up the subject of awesome things you remember when you was younger – be it Thundercats, Dino Riders or just how awesome the Amiga 500 was when the shit video adapter wasn’t falling out.  But what about those old video games that you loved so much which weren’t fortunate enough to stay alive?

Started: Homeworld (1999)

Last sighting: Homeworld 2 (2003)

Ah Homeworld.  Never had a space RTS actually bothered before to confuse you with proper 3D space and never before had you been bummed by some opponent attacking you not from in front, or behind – but from above.  This stylish RTS pushed all the right buttons and left you with strategic gameplay and some genuinely pretty space battles.  Admittedly the vapour trails from the smaller ships did make everything look like a plate of spaghetti when you zoomed far enough away but we didn’t mind.

Homeworld 2 (we’ll ignore the expansion Cataclysm) came around a few years later and made everything look even shinier and the space battles became even more epic.  Fighters zoomed about pew pewing everything, frigates slowly got into line and fired everything from torpedoes to ion blasts at other frigates and the god-awfully expensive destroyers would turn to their sides like old fashioned tall ships in order to send volleys of hot plasma at their distant foes.  Fun in a basket.  Or space.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Relic Entertainment who originally developed Homeworld has been busy with their Dawn of War and Company of Heroes licences, however THQ – the owners of Relic, have recently reacquired the Homeworld franchise. So Homeworld 3 at some point in the future is a definite possibility.

Hot pink lasers in your bottom.

Started: Syndicate (1993)

Last sighting: Syndicate Wars (1996)

Quite possibly the first game that let you run around slaughtering civilians with a minigun.  You think No Russian from Modern Warfare 2 was harsh (well it was a bit – Ed)?  Well imagine having drug-addled cyborgs under your command laying waste to an entire city block with a gauss launcher and then mowing down the survivers with laser rifle (okay, it’s not still as harsh).  This tactical squad game was infamous for the amount of collateral damage that would often be inflicted on the general populace as a result of you completing your mission.

The sequel, Syndicate Wars, was even bloodier with a 3D city, darker setting and even more firepower.  You could now set up entire perimeters of razor wire and then shepherd your foes (and everyone else) right into it with the discreet use of a nuclear grenade or two.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Apparently confirmed!  Although Ex-Bullfrog head honcho Peter Molyneux wittered on in 2006 how Syndicate is the one game he’d like to work on again – as an online game no less – it’s been confirmed that Starbreeze Studios are confirmed as working on a Syndicate title for EA.  Get in.  Here’s hoping it’s not cow fudge.

And he's working on fucking Milo?

Started: Heretic (1994)

Last sighting: Heretic 2 (1998)

Often seen as Doom‘s geekier cousin.  Heretic and Hexen were all about spells and swords instead of chainsaws and BFGs.  Hexen took this even further by actually allowing character classes like the Fighter or the Mage, while its sequel was most fondly remembered for having a cube item which when thrown at an enemy, would make chains appear from the walls and impale them Hellraiser style.  We won’t talk about Heretic 2 as it was relatively gash, but it would be nice to see this fantasy FPS given some love and released with the current gen systems.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – No word on the horizon whatsoever.  Raven still own the rights to Hexen and Heretic and they’re going strong at the moment.  So there’s a reasonably good chance we may see a reboot or sequel at some point.  When?  God knows.

Perfect for XBLA, surely? Not at 1200M$P though.

Started: Carmageddon (1997)

Last sighting: Carmageddon TDR 2000 (2000)

Driving, fun and gore all combined in a way that was so silly and awesome that not even Grand Theft Auto‘s driving sections have really managed to surpass it.  This was the game where driving over the old frail grandmother struggling to cross the road was not frowned upon but positively encouraged.  Of course the game was also fun because it allowed multiple ways to drive through the course, relatively free-roaming gameplay,some utterly stupid jumps and ensuing blood and chaos that left you with a daft smile on your face afterwards.

Carmageddon 2 was even better with proper 3D pedestrians to break into bits and more smashable everything.  As for the third instalment – TDR 2000 – well, it was shit.  But that’s no reason to not want an update.  Imagine the driving sections out of Dead Rising combined with the crazy stunts of Motor Storm: Pacific Rift in a city setting and you may be on to something.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Carmageddon 4 was originally planned for a 2005 release but was put on hold indefinitely and originally seemed to be vapourware, but recently there has been confirmation that Carmageddon 4 has been brought back from the brink of death and is being worked on by a Russian development house called Targem.  Only thing is, it’s been rebranded as “Armageddon Riders“  So technically not Carmageddon.  Pfft.

Let's hope that's Vin Diesel.

Started: Crusader – No Remorse (1995)

Last sighting: Crusader – No Regret (1996)

If you never played this.  You.  Missed.  Out.

Isometric gameplay (ahhhh, classic!) and a soldier with lots of guns…and lots and lots of awesome gory death animations when you shoot the poor feckers with whatever strange bloody gun you were carrying.  I’m not joking, the guns here would freeze, chops bits off, chop people in half, melt, mutilate and generally mess up their day in many ways.  Asides from that the game was genuinely entertaining and kept you wanting to play.  Update with modern graphics and even multiplayer squad gameplay?  Oh hell yes please.

Trivia: This game has links in it that appear to show it shares the same universe as not only Wing Commander but also System Shock.  Worrying.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Well a third title called ‘No Mercy‘ was planned but never released and originally it was intended to have five games in the series.  No sign otherwise though sadly.

Isometric death party. Keep your Knightlore bumsex. This is how to do not-quite-3D.

Started: Battlezone (1998)

Last sighting: Battlezone 2: Combat Commander (1999)

Completely ignoring the actual vector arcade game of the 1980s, I’m talking here about the Activision (Actingthecuntivision, Dij.  It’s PEOWW law – Ed) reimagining of the series back in the late ’90s.  Now these games were good on many levels.  Not only did you get all the fun of driving around in tanks and mechs, but it was essentially an RTS that you ran around in with an FPS viewpoint.  If you wanted, you could just hide in a building and go to an overhead viewpoint and place buildings, factories and defence posts – but likewise, you could get out there, take over any vehicle you wanted and personally go and smack the enemies face in.

If you got blown out of your vehicle, you had a sniper rifle for blasting enemies that were driving tanks etc – rendering their vehicle empty and free for you to yoink yourself.  Nothing like being stuck miles behind enemy lines, waiting for a tank to leave its formation then shooting its owner and making a high speed escape with most of the enemy battalion following you all the way back to your base.  The sequel added even more vehicles and upgrades and gave what at the time was a major overhaul to the graphics and gameplay – they also changed the enemy from the pesky commies to some rather unpleasant aliens.  I can only imagine what they could do with this now ten years later.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Unlikely.  Pandemic/Acti(ngthecunti)vision released a statement as recent as 2008 stating that they felt there was no scope for making a third title for various reasons (Pandemic are fucked now as well – Ed).  Fans did start a Battlezone 3 project but so far it appears to be just in a vague ‘planning’ stage.

Do you have 'The Little Book of Calm'?

Started: Descent – Freespace: The Great War (1998)

Last sighting – Freespace 2 (1999)

I know, I know, technically Freespace is part of the Descent universe so technically, Descent should be the first on the list – but just no.  Freespace is a completely different animal.

Very much a classic space sim like the good old Wing Commander and X-Wing series.  Freespace was all about piloting fighter and bomber spaceships through random space scenarios and generally blowing the crap out of everything that wasn’t human.  But Freespace took the concept beyond what had been seen before.  First and foremost – it made everything BIG.  No “capital class” ships that looked about three inches long on your screen.  The capital class ships and cruisers in this game dwarfed the screen and lent the game a feeling of epicness that was further enriched by an actually compelling (if not entirely original..) storyline that made you feel like your actions actually counted for something.

That being said though, Freespace 2 managed to keep the essence of the original intact and in a rare move, actually improve upon the original game.  The graphics and feel of the ships got better, the missions felt more urgent and the capital ships grew in size again like a fat kid eating too much cake.  A fat kid that shot lasers at other fat kids for your entertainment that is.

Likelyhood of seeing it again? – Not great at the moment.  The game is still well and truly alive at the moment thanks to the various community mods, but the actual license for the Freespace title was among those put up for sale by Interplay in 2005 when they went under and so far, nobody has bothered buying it.  Derek Smart, the creator of the much maligned Battlecruiser 3000AD has mentioned an interest however – but from his previous attempts, it’s probably for the best if he leaves it the feck alone.

If you're going to crash aim for Stamford Bridge.

Started: Utopia – The Creation of a Nation (1991)

Last sighting: Fragile Allegiance (1996)

Bit of an obscure one this.  Imagine a kind of mish mash of Civilisation and Command and Conquer but on asteroids and you’re…well, probably not that close.  But building stuff on asteroids and mining the fuck out of them was what this was all about.  Not as simple as that though, oh no.  You also had to try to spread through space taking over as many other asteroids as possible while running a decent mining operation, keeping your colonies happy and also keeping a good fleet of spaceships whizzing around to stop impending fleets that would come knocking at any moment.  Being able to buy blueprints for bigger and better buildings and ships was also a nice touch as was being able to build multiple long range missile silos to hurl at your pesky enemies…or your own asteroid when you decided you was bored.  Just me?  Humph (nope – I also added engines to my asteroids also.  It was a cheap win but still fun – Ed).

Likelyhood of seeing it again?  Highly unlikely unless the license gets sold off soon.  Gremlin who were responsible for first publishing and then developing the series got bought out by Infogames in 1999.  Their development house got shut down and demolished shortly after though and currently Infogames have been selling a lot of their properties and are making huge losses each year. They’re currently circling the toilet as we speak.  So what happens to the Fragile Allegiance license is anyone’s guess.

K240 = gaming sex. You've probably never played it but you've probably played Gears of War. You need to redress this balance. Get K240 and the WinUAE emulator and make it happen. Now.

DLC Round-up

Well it seems like our games are never fully paid for these days.  With the likes of Gears of War 2, Halo 3 and Fable 2 drip-feeding us new content (that smashes the ’1250 Gamerscore’ limit just to really fuck us off) it looks like games these days can cost you well over sixty quid if you want the full product.  So, we’re here to tell you what’s good and what’s gash.

Colin

Red Faction: Guerilla – Demons of the Badlands

Red Faction: Guerrilla did many things right (as the Peoww gents will already confirm), unfortunately I cannot look past several issues I experienced during the game; the difficulty spikes, the atrociously hellish final (and other) level and, as is standard in Volition games you have to play through a sandbox that is only 20% story missions and 80% lazy side quests (time trials, hostage rescues and others that outstay their welcome even more than in Saints Row). Despite this annoyance I went into the Demons of the Badlands DLC with a glad heart, just to see if they could do anything different for us, or at the very least, a better DLC effort than Volition is used to providing.

This new DLC pack has you not playing as a member of the Red Faction Mars resistance, fighting against the evil and oppressive Earth Defence Force (EDF), but rather as Samanya (Sam), plucky sidekick from the main game and former Maruder (scavengers/bandits/ pseudo-badguys of Mars). The game takes place 6 years before the start of the main game and focuses on the Marauders struggle against the EDF.

Right, who was it that recommended 'Ghosts of Mars' for movie night?

Demons of the Badlands is basically another “sector” of Mars for you to play through, very similar to the 6 or 7 that came with the full game. This DLC does not at all follow on from your RF:G save game so it really doesn’t matter if you haven’t completed the full game before trying (the DLC area is completely isolated from the rest of Mars). There are 3 main missions that make up this prequel tale to RF:G which very slightly tie in to the story of the full game). These missions are not as imaginative as some of the better ones from the full game, so for the main part you will be levelling enemy strongholds and rescuing allies while you do so, even getting the opportunity to create some tank based mayhem if you’re on your best behaviour. As is the case in the full game, before you are allowed to take on the final mission you must have significantly lowered the “control” that the Earth Defence Force has in that area. This is accomplished primarily by destroying EDF buildings marked on your map, this can be done at your leisure or during missions and frankly takes no time at all – before you know it you will unlock the last mission and complete the game.

To try and keep things interesting the game throws a few new weapons at you like the missile pod or the spiker rifle and even gives you a couple of new vehicles in the form of Marauder buggies or even the marauder power walker that you may have seen in game screenshots, but frankly these have got to be some of the laziest additions I have ever seen. The vehicles control identical to Red Faction vehicles from the full game and the power walker is identical too – just painted different, with no new features at all. The weapons are so meh that you will go out of your way to complete some of the tedious side quests just to unlock the weapons from the main game. About the only change to the weapon system I approved of was being able to carry and deploy more remote charges to aid in building destruction.

For 800 Microsoft points (nearly seven earth pounds) I cannot come close to recommending this DLC – if it was on sale for half that price I’d perhaps be happier but for what was barely an hour’s enjoyment I’d rather have taken the chance on several indie games. The die hard fans who will scour the badlands for all collectable Power Cells and will try to beat the pro times on the side missions might gain some enjoyment here, otherwise – stay away.

Steve

Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

Mothership Zeta comes as the final instalment to the Fallout DLC and expands the horizon of the Fallout Universe to the very stars.  Having initially stumbled across the crashed alien spaceship in the Capital Wasteland I had thought there may be more to this unique bit of scenery and this DLC uses the crash site as a springboard for a journey to outer space.  Upon reaching the crash site you find yourself being beamed up to the alien mothership where you awake to a bit of probing, a prison cell shared by another kidnapped human and some very angry aliens.

The spaceship looks unlike anything you would have seen in Fallout and is made from futuristic looking steel and glass, think 1950′s American sci-fi Buck Rogers.  Whilst being a massive change in scenery the tone of the mothership remarkably remains the same as the rest of the Capital Wasteland recalling the hovercars you see scattered across the Wasteland and the art deco style jukeboxes and vending machines.  On board the mothership your main objective is to secure an escape and the only way to do this is to storm the bridge, but the route isn’t straight forward.  You’ll travel through the depths of the ship and even take a little trip outside on your journey to the bridge and all along the way you’ll be blasting nasty evil aliens with some crazy alien weapons.

Not another bughunt.

Unfortunately the new enemies on show here come in only two basic forms, however the weapons on offer do make up for this lack of variety as they are all fun to use.  You’ll also come across a variety of new armours and clothes and a scattering of new items with some fantastic uses, allowing you to repair your weapons without paying for it.  The level design of the Mothership isn’t the greatest though and it’s easy to find yourself getting lost in the samey corridors and linear levels. The variety on offer in the main quests also isn’t up to the standard of the quests found in the other DLC for Fallout, although the optional areas are nicely implemented and do compensate for the main quests.

As standard this DLC rolls in at 800 MSP and as with the rest of the DLC on offer here it’s pretty short, in fact this can be completed with a straight run through in just less than five hours making it the shortest DLC on offer.  There are however some very interesting views on offer in this DLC that you wouldn’t have seen anywhere else in your Fallout career which is a nice draw to purchase this DLC.  The achievements on offer also fall along the same old route with one for each mission plus an additional one which here is a collect-a-thon, annoyingly this is terribly easy to miss on a first run through and impossible to get once the DLC is over, meaning you’ll have to start the DLC from scratch again.  Mothership Zeta has to be compared to the other DLC on offer and although it takes you to the most bizarre location yet it’s not the best by far.  I’d buy this but only if you love Fallout.

Rich

Skate 2: Maloof Money Cup

Oh fuck you, EA.  The original Skate remains maxed out at 1000GS but after getting 1000 on Skate 2, I reluctantly bought two more DLC packs that took the game up to 1250GS.  After that, with there being minimum multiplayer interest in the game, I traded it in, confident that the game was fully finished.

The Maloof Money Cup DLC adds another 250GS (taking the game up to 1500) which is represented by four achievements.  Two of these are for completing very short, and easy, tournaments and the other two are for location specific tricks.  The DLC can be completed in well under thirty minutes and the new area it unlocks is a fairly generic skatepark.

Gnarly or something.

As ever with EA DLC, it’s sold on the basis that other people will be buying it and so the focus is on multiplayer larks but Skate 2 already has enough locations to piss about in so I’m not sure this DLC is a good idea and the extra GS just exploits us OCD whores.

For 240M$P, it’s a bit of  a rip-off.  Hopefully this will be the last one they do.

Gareth

Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station

The second DLC mission has just been released for Mass Effect (the original being the pretty decent ‘Bring Down the Sky’), ‘Pinnacle Station’. At only 400 points it makes it one of the cheaper expansions out there, but money is still money, so is it worth it?

Well, let’s look at the content. Downloading this DLC opens up the titular Pinnacle Station to you, a space station used to train soldiers using virtual reality. Upon arriving someone is accusing someone else of cheating and it’s your job to prove the scores are beatable by coming first in each VR challenge. The challenges come in four flavours, Hunt (who can kill the most), Time Trial (who can kill all the enemies fastest), Capture (capture the points in the quickest time) and Survival (survive as long as you can). These challenges take place on three different levels based around the ME universe, Volcanic, Subterranean and Tropical, making a total of twelve different missions. Upon coming first in all twelve challenges an extra ‘untested’ level is unlocked for you to complete. That’s it. You do gain a high level weapon (nothing that can’t be found elsewhere and I already had something better) and there are three new achievements.

Thirteen levels may seem like a decent amount, but they are all fighting based and so you are effectively just doing the same thing over and over. The difficulty is all over the shop as well. Playing on Insanity difficulty as a level 59 Soldier on my first attempt at a Hunt level I destroyed the table by tripling the highest score, yet by the time I reached the final Hunt mission, it was impossible to get anywhere near the target (seems like it is geared far more towards an Adept) and I actually ended up turning down the difficulty a notch just to see all the DLC as it blatantly wasn’t going to happen otherwise. I managed to complete all the other challenges on Insanity, but again some were completed on my first try whilst others took multiple attempts.

Difficulty spikes aside, there is little content here for your 400 points and I struggle to recommend it. If you absolutely adored the fighting in ME and you like the idea of trying to better your scores then maybe it’ll be worth a look, but for me, even on subsequent playthroughs, I probably won’t bother with this DLC again.

]]> http://www.peoww.co.uk/dlc-round-up-fallout-3-red-faction-skate-2/feed/ 0 http://www.peoww.co.uk/kirsten-kearney-interview/ http://www.peoww.co.uk/kirsten-kearney-interview/#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:07:06 +0000 Richie http://www.peoww.co.uk/?p=3132

Rich vs. Kirsten – The Ready-Up Interview

While at Insert Coin ’09 in July we had a chance to chat to various people involved both directly and indirectly with the show.

In this episode Rich talks to Kirsten from Ready Up about the event, scary nurses and Shannon Matthews.  For more information about Ready Up visit their website at:

http://ready-up.net/

The Karoshi Drop Interview

Rich

PEOWW (the Bleoww) recently met Matt Lord, the man behind Karoshi Drop T-Shirts, at Insert Coin ’09 (an event he had a hand in organising).  Karoshi Drop specialises in making tees for the gaming community and, whilst it’s focused mainly on the fighting/shooting end of the spectrum, they also do custom designs including a bunch of Fallout 3-inspired ‘Vault 101′ shirts for some of our PEOWWsters.

We chucked him in front of a camera with Tiq for a little interview action.  The vid is at the bottom of this feature but I decided to catch up with Matt afterwards for a little Q&A to see how the event went.

Rich: So, you were at Insert Coin but you also had a big involvement in getting it set up.  Aside from selling shirts what roles did you have in making the event happen?

Matt: Compared to everyone one else involved I had little to do with actually getting the cabinets to the show. I quickly became the alternative entertainment guy.  If it was not an arcade cabinet, and it was at the show, it had my hand in it somewhere.  So getting Radio Sega and Fastfoot Media on board to DJ was me I was running around a lot of the day meeting and greeting people. So pretty much one 1/100th of the effort and work than anyone else put it.

Matt (left) and bemused helper guy.

Rich: You were pretty busy throughout the weekend, did the event meet your expectations and did you get much business come your way?

Matt: Yeah in so many ways. The event was awesome and I can’t believe what everyone managed to pull off in the end as pretty much everything was friends helping out.  But think about it, how epic was that weekend? That’s the culmination of two guys and a bunch of their friends coming together and making it happen.  When it started it was meant to be fifty cabinets and a bunch of us arcade nerds bringing down a crate of beer. It quickly became so much more than just us on the Arcade Otaku forum.  We even had a guy come over from Canada with a flight case of all the Type X2 games and a shit load of motherboards. Now thats passion for you.

Rich: I’m guessing it didn’t all go super smoothly thought, right?

Matt: I had problems with my stock turning up on the Friday afternoon when i should of been on the road at 9:30am the same day. So I was unable to get a lot of new designs out which i thought would of gone down well at the show. I’m sitting on about 4 or five new designs which I could take to print right now but I just dont have time, but I sold a fair few shirts, most of which were preorders before the event.  I was able to touch base with a lot of my buyers who I’d  never met before and met a lot of new ones as well as set up possible collaborations for the future. Thing is my website is not even up yet so unless you know one of my haunts you cant buy off me, but I’ll sell privately on various forums. I was gutted we did not get to have our Karoshidrop vs Peoww super battle. AI guess I will get another time to hand your asses to you guys hahaha.

Rich: Yeah, but you can keep all that Japanese fighting shite – we’ll be picking Bomb Jack for 2010!  So, Has IC’09 inspired you to make any more retro designs?

Matt: Oh God, I don’t know yet.   Did you see my flyer with the Egret2 cabinet with the tenticles coming out?

Rich: It’s on my kitchen table right now, funnily enough.

Matt: Well that was something me and one of my artists (thanks Mufu) banged out a couple of weeks before the event. I was able to put it on the flyer but it was too soon to go to press on the tees. I really love arcade cabinets, arcade sticks and the like so I’m working a a few bits to do with that. There is also some other stuff which im not allowed to talk about yet but its pretty cool if it happens. Like the coolest thing ever! Can’t say much more than that.

Rich: Karoshi Drop furry ears perhaps?  So, did you get much of a chance to play anything there?  Any favorite games from the event?

Matt: I think over the whole time I was there I had about seven credits total worth of play. I played Aliens, Blazblue, Street fighter 3.3 (thinks for a moment) yeah I also tested my copy of Money Puzzle Exchanger which I picked up off a friend of mine. I had to chuck someone off the Neo 19 at the event but it was cool because he had not seen the game before and was just as eager to see what it was all about.

I was upset that Strike Witches never made it to the show floor. I was really looking forward to playing that. It’s a brand new hori shooter with super hi-res graphics but with Blazblue. KOF12 and Tekken taking up the few wide screen cabinets we had there, something had to be left behind.

Matt's stall at IC'09.

Rich: KaroshiDrop is aimed at gamers primarily.  So have you been a gamer for a long time?

Matt: Oh god yes! I first started playing back on my brothers ZX Spectrum when I was about 5 but it really took off when I moved to Hong Kong and my dad bought my brother and I a PC Engine. It is still one of my main gaming platforms. Living in Hong Kong is when I got my first real taste of arcade gaming.  Back in the Eighties as a kid in Hong Kong you either swam, skateboarded or played video games. I had a gromit in my ear so I could not swim without having to have a very attractive swimming cap on my head and water tight putty in my ears. I used to skateboard a lot and I was pretty good too for an 8 year old but that was put on hold the moment my local arcade got street fighter II in. It’s a shame because before the gromit I was a really good swimmer, competition standard. Games are way more important than that though.

Rich: Yeah, swimming is shit anyway.  At least playing games doesn’t involve contact with other people’s piss, right?  A few of your boys were there from shmups.com and obviously some of those chaps are pretty intense gamers.  Have you 1CC’d any shooters or are you more of a chilled out credit-feeder?

Matt: Intense is a rather strong word heheh. I am neither, I will maybe credit feed a game once just to see what it’s like even then I wont complete it. Then I use the one credit to practice and get a bit better at it. My reaction times are not quite as good as the better shmups players and my hit box awareness is pretty shit too. The short answer would be I’ve never one credited any shmup not even Blazing Star which i owned for a long time and is easy.

I was a bit gutted because they had Muchi Muchi Pork and I was unable to play it. That is the most played game other than Taiko Tatsujin that I played when i was in Japan last year.

Rich: Oh, we’ll challenge you to a shooter next year then.  So, if you’re not a hardcore shoot ‘em up player, what is your game?

Matt: Short answer: puzzles and 2D beat ‘em ups. I pay a lot of Street Fighter 3.3 and my big puzzle game right now is Money Puzzle Exchanger, but I also play a lot of Magical Drop 3. I have a mean Felicia on Vampire Saviour.

I like Street Fighter 4 (note: like, not love).  It’s a great game but it’s no Street Tighter 3.3.  Other than arcade gaming I also play a lot of RPGs.  Right now I’m playing Odin Sphere which is so pretty for a PS2 game. It had me hooked.

Rich: A very pretty game.  The cuntish boss characters will soon put you off though.  Anyway, did you pick up any goodies at IC’09?

Matt: Hellz yeah! I managed to pick up two arcade cabinets – an Egret2 and a Cyberlead – which I’ve been lusting after for the better part of four or five years. There was Money Puzzle Exchanger which ive been waiting for about a year and a half to get off a guy called Penhoes. King of fighter 2001, Super pang and I nabbed a CPS2 Street Fighter Alpha 3 board too.  It’s all about Rainbow Mika ya know .

Also, a couple of ball tops and an Marquee holder for my Egret2 Cabinet which I did not need to buy because when i opened it up there was one in the base of it hehe. I got one for sale do you need one?

Rich: Not right now!  Will there be an IC’10 and will you be involved in it?

Matt: Just let me give Poolchamp/Alan a phone call. . .  it would seem there is a very, very, super-high probability that it would happen. If I was asked to be involved again I would do what was needed of me. I imagine it would be the official shirts for sale and I would probably loan my cabinets for the event. I’ve not got tech experience and I’ve got no fucking muscles to lift shit, so other than making the shirts and possibly doing interviews like this to help promote the event and the hard work the guys do I will keep doing that. if it was to happen it would not be called IC’10 it would be called Insert Coin Expo or I.C.E . . . but i can neither confirm or deny that it will be happening at this point

If there was to be an announcement, I would imagine it would be in the next couple of weeks. . . If it was to happen.

Okay, I’m going to go now :-S

PEOWW goes to Insert Coin ’09

Rich

When the inevitable happens and Microsoft update Xbox Live one too many times leading to all our 360s becoming self-aware and deciding our fate in a microsecond, they’d better not send me back to 1984 to protect any fledgling John Connor types. First chance I get I’ll grab myself a stack of ten pence pieces and will wander into the nearest arcade I can find. Project: Bomb Jack shall commence.

I’ve been dabbling with coin-ops (coin-operated arcade machines) ever since I was small enough to need a bar stool to reach the control panel. I’m not an expert, a collector or an obsessive (although I’ve got nothing against those types). I have been running various emulators for over ten years though, and I like to keep MAME installed for rainy days or for whenever I have a retro itch to scratch.

The venue.

The PEOWW.

Getting in.

Emulation can only invoke memories of the good old days though. It can’t recreate them perfectly. Sure, a classic is still a classic and gameplay is always king but my PS2-to-USB convertor is no substitute for even the loosest, wobbliest of sticks when I’m feeling nostalgic. Last weekend saw a chance to properly relive those halcyon days of gaming.

Insert Coin ’09, was the first exhibition of its type that I’ve seen in the UK. Most gaming exhibitions focus on the history of home computing, which is no bad thing, but IC09 was all about the arcade machines. Over a hundred dedicated cabs, set to freeplay, were lined up along the length of the hall at Northampton Saints RFC stadium, ranging from stone-cold classics, celebrated beat-’em-ups to some of the highest-rated Japanese shooters (as was evident from the strong turnout from shmups.com).

PEOWW were there to report on the event and you’ll see various write-ups in the box-outs on this article from everyone, but primarily we were there for the games. After a lengthy queueing session to get in the venue, I made a b-line straight for R-Type Leo. Much like riding a bike, those old stick skills never get forgotten and I happily advanced through the early levels vowing to buy an arcade stick the first chance I got.

Hello, Girls.

Danny meets DeathSmiles.

Tiq loses his soul.

Unlike other games exhibitions, IC09 didn’t bother with special guests or speakers and, Ready Up’s Cosplay Clash aside, the focus remained strictly on gaming for the duration with a few well-timed tournaments clearing the less popular machines so that people could out-cheap each other on Street Fighter IV or *shudder* Tekken 5 (has one game ever attracted so many charmless cunts before or since?).

Retro fans were well-catered for by a host of MAME cabinets (being demonstrated by their wanker owners who boasted that they made 900+ quid profit on them each and sold precisely zero) and dedicated machines for Sunset Riders (one player only – boo!), Rolling Thunder (sob!), Kung Fu Master (fuck you, boomerang boss!), R-Type (got to level four, lost power-ups, lost hope), R-Type Leo (gaming silk lightly brushing your testicles), Vendetta (sorry, couldn’t get to the prison bumming level for a screenshot) and a rather irritating Super Puzzle Fighter II cabinet that lost its colour on one corner of the screen, utterly scuppering player two.

That lot adds up to retro gold, especially with Bomb Jack, Contra and Mr Do’s Castle occupying my time on those MAME cabs.

THIS = good.

Colin endures another shoot 'em up.

Beware: palette-swapped aliens!

Fans of physical violence had their pick of KOF12, BlazBlue (gorgeous but always occupied), lots of SFIV cabs and various other Capcom titles from the Marvel, Darkstalkers and Street Fighter series. Pick of the event has to be Mortal Kombat II running on a MAME cab. Specifically, my Mileena eating Tiq’s Scorpion which now means I actually own his soul. Will trade for gamerscore.

However, it was the shooting genre that stole the show with a host of classic titles and newer efforts that are too numerous to list. Highlights included the Cave titles DoDonPachi (arguably the most accessible bullet-hell shooter), Guwange (another nails-hard vert scroller but with some excellent character design) and the visual oilfest that is DeathSmiles, a game that does its best to burn your retinas whilst giving you enough firepower to invade North Korea by yourself.

Outrun 2 gets tested.

Ready Up's Kirsten.

IC09's excellent first aid staff.

Older classics like Metal Slug, Psyvariar, UN Squadron and a whole heap of bullet-ridden others made up the numbers with each game offering a different spin on the hitting enemies with pixels genre. Gamers who like their shooting to feel a little more real also had the light-gun games Vampire Night, House of the Dead 2, Ghost Squad and Lethal Enforcers III to keep them occupied.

As a first attempt, Insert Coin ’09 was a definite success and the place was mostly full of lovely people. If they can add more machines for ’10, and service a few of the cabs before the event starts, then things are looking great for next year but in the meantime a Hori arcade stick, a rotateable monitor and copy of MAME will have to make do.

If you’ve got even a passing interest in retro gaming or just fancy trying new things, IC’10 is looking essential already. We’ll be there and this time we’re one crediting EVERYTHING (read: nothing).

Lurk Fave games: Puzzle Fighter, Final Fight and Punisher. Highlights: apart from the Chinese buffet on the Friday night, would have to be the sheer amount of games that were playable. Apart from the dedicated cabinets there were half a dozen MAME cabinets. Each of these having thousands of ROMs to play, meant you could play pretty much every arcade game ever. This meant I scared Colin by showing him Miss Nude World 96 along with the stupidly huge amount of mahjong games that came out in Japan

Tiq Fave games: Aliens, R-Type Leo Highlights: Showing off my Outrun skills for my Peoww brethren. Don’t step, Son. Insert Coin was a fantastic event for me, as it gave me a chance to get back to some gaming roots . There’s nothing quite like sitting down at a machine and playing games for an hour, with someone you’ve never met before. This is the sort of bonding experience you’ll never find across the cold, faceless world of Xbox Live and it’s something every serious gamer should participate in, at least once in their lives, just to get some serious perspective on the humble origins of this beautiful hobby we call gaming.

Colin Fave games: The MAME stuff. Midnight Resistance, Metal Slug, Bomb Jack, Captain Commando, Sunset Riders and so much more. Highlights: Making faces at the cosplayers with people just as immature as me. Probably the most fun a group of sweaty men could have in just one hall. Being that a high percentage of the cabinets were shoot-em-ups, that didn’t leave me with many games I would have liked to have played. There were a couple of light gun games, racing games and a few scrolling beat-em-ups but my options were pretty limited. Now yes I am bitching about this but thankfully my needs were catered for with the wonderful MAME cabinets – ten minutes playtime convinced me that I must own one.

Rich vs. Graham – The Fastfeet Media Interview

While at Insert Coin ’09 in July we had a chance to chat to various people involved both directly and indirectly with the show.

In this episode Rich talks to Graham from Fastfeet Media about music, retro gaming, Sega, Insert Coin ’09 and lots more. For more information about Fastfeet Media visit their website at:

www.fastfeetmedia.net

Rich vs. Gary – The RetroGT Interview

While at Insert Coin ’09 in July we had a chance to chat to various people involved both directly and indirectly with the show.

In this episode Rich talks to Garry from Retro Game T-Shirts about T-shirts, retro gaming, MAME, Insert Coin ’09 and lots more. For more information about RetroGT visit their website at:

www.retrogt.com

J-RPG Heaven, Achievements Hell

Gareth

It’s tough to be a J-RPG lover and an achievements whore. The Xbox 360 has a decent collection of Japanese role players of varying quality but pretty much all of them have one thing in common: horrible achievements. If you want the full 1000G on any of the following games you’ll probably want to use a guide and even then it’s no guarantee. I’ll give a brief summary of the achievement difficulties you may face and list the toughest achievements.

The best game, as far as achievements go, with all 1000 points being gained by playing through the story. No collection based ones, no grinding ones, simply play the game. Only one missable achievement. I’ve not played the game myself, but it has received above average reviews.

Biggest Obstacle

Grand Finale

Happy Ending – 150G

Simply make the right decision during the game and you’ll get the ‘happy ending’, otherwise you’ll get a ‘bad ending’. If you want to see the bad ending then I suggest using multiple saves rather than replaying the whole game again.

With a guide this is a pretty easy game to max out, if time consuming. There are a lot of missable achievements, from getting every type of item (some of which have to be stolen from one time bosses) and fighting every type of monster to perfecting minigames. The item and monster collection shouldn’t be a problem with a guide, the minigames will require a couple of attempts (luckily there are save points nearby) and there are numerous moments where you have to tap the A button faster than seems humanly possible. However, although these are missable, I don’t consider them to be the biggest obstacle to the full 1000.

Biggest Obstacle

Max all classes

Max out the rank for all classes – 50G x 5

There are five of this type of achievement, and it basically requires hours upon hours of grinding. Each character has numerous job types, and you have to rank each of them up to 99. You won’t get anywhere near this without grinding, and I suggest simply tying your joypad up with string and letting your character run in circles as you do something more interesting. A guide will give you the full details.

Despite owning this game for years I’ve never played it, but the achievements seem very straight forward with the aid of a guide. It does, however, commit the cardinal sin of forcing you to play the game multiple times (at least twice). Some side quests aren’t available the first time through, so you’re looking at playing a 30-40 hour game twice if you want the full 1000. There are also uneven achievements (one for 79G and another for 321G).

Biggest Obstacle

EZI Worshipper

All the items related to EZI have been collected – 321G

There are a couple of achievements you can’t get until the second playthrough, but this appears to be the most time consuming (and the high, but uneven, 321G supports that). With a guide this shouldn’t cause any headaches.

Only one missable achievement in this (Spell Collector), but there is no excuse for missing it really (simply buy every spell you find in the shops as you find them). Plenty attached to side quests, and maxing out each character, but a guide should help you clear up anything you need for the 1000, as long as you do it before the point of no return. There is some DLC which has added 100 points.

Biggest Obstacle

Treasure Trove

Obtain all Treasure Box items in the field – 20G

Not missable, but can be a major chore, even if you use a guide from the very beginning. You have to open every chest in the game. Some are in areas which you only visit once, but don’t worry, these items will appear in the Auction House where you can bid on them. It’s the items in areas you can go back to that you have to worry about. Miss one and you won’t get the achievement, so you’ll have to go back to every area and check every chest to find which one you missed. Chore.

There are many horrible achievements in this game, far too many to list here. A guide will help you with the twelve missable achievements, but even then there are some which will cause game rage. On top of that there is an awful crafting minigame, uneven achievements (a 49G and 1G) and Infinite Undiscovery requires three playthroughs to get the full 1000. It’s not the longest JRPG in the world, but that’s still not on.

Biggest Obstacle

Compulsive

Obtain every item – 50G

It’s actually incredibly difficult to pick the worst achievement in Infinite Undiscovery. This requires you to have had every type of item in your inventory at some point during the game (not necessarily at the same time). With a guide it shouldn’t be too horrible, it just means you have to be careful and thorough. Runner up goes to ‘Seraphic Gatekeeper’ which asks you to complete the optional dungeon at the end of the game on the hardest difficulty (which you’ll have to play through the game twice to unlock) for 1G.

Three missable achievements here, but all are related to side quests. If you ensure you complete all the side quests (some of which are only available if you recruit certain people) then these three achievements will be available to you. Not a hugely difficult 1000, but very time consuming (probably over a hundred hours).

Biggest Obstacle

The Final Instance

You have finished the quest “Things Unchangeable” – 200G

There is a very tough boss you can face if you get this achievement, and although really challenging, if you haven’t completed every quest (thus unlocking the “Things Unchangeable” quest) then getting that achievement is not even an option. A guide will help you to make sure you do not miss any optional quests.

The worst achievement list of the bunch I have to say. This requires a minimum of three playthroughs and has twelve missable achievements. A guide (or more likely, multiple) will help you get the majority in one playthrough, but if you do want the full 1000 then you’ll be looking at well over 200 hours worth of play over multiple playthroughs. Still, at least there are no uneven achievements, right?

Biggest Obstacle

Ultimate Battler

Obtain 100% of all battle trophies – 10G

There are 900 battle trophies, 100 for each character. A trophy is awarded to a character upon completing a certain stipulation (fight 100 battles, defeat 100 enemy types, etc.). A lot of them require you to be in control of that character at that time (others can be unlocked by the AI), some are missable and a lot simply won’t be unlocked through natural play. The amount of time and effort required simply isn’t worth it, despite the battle system being the best thing about this rather poor game. There are also achievements for 10%, 20%, 30% and so on.

Tough one to call as this has literally just been released in the UK. With a little research though I have found that the game requires multiple playthroughs and there are missable achievements. This doesn’t seem as bad as Star Ocean, but only time will tell how tough the achievements on this game truly are.

Biggest Obstacle

They Call Me…

Clear sub events to acquire titles – 30G

It’s hard to tell which is truly the most difficult achievement at this point, but this one requires multiple playthroughs, and with a guide I think the majority of the others should be simple enough if time consuming. I may be wrong on this, but you can guarantee it won’t be a quick and easy 1000G.