I Woke Up This Morning And Just Hated Everything

Yea some times you just need to start again. So a few day ago I decided that Subway the UT3 map I am working on was just not going where it should be. When I really looked at it, it played like crap and just had no good feel to it. So I have locked it away and am starting a new. The map has been totally renamed and now has a much better theme and design. I also put a lot more work into pre-production and hope to start work soon after I have done a bit more research and design.

I don’t really feel upset or anything in fact I am excited about it and really look foward to developing this new better version. The theme now fits in with the unrel backstory a bit more and IMO is just better in everyway. So the next stage will be to block it out and then just test test test!

Sony E3 2008 Press Conference

I am a bit late at posting this but anyway here we go. So not a bad showing from Sony they could have done a lot more and talked a bit less but never mind. The only really big thing they announced was MAG, the 256 player online game. If it ever played like the CG trailer this is the game I have always wanted but I really don’t see you ever getting 256 people, who are that smart together at one time. But I can hope.

The movie service is cool but with Microsoft announcing that they have added net flicks to the Movies service on Live, does anyone really care? The show of both Home and LBP where very disappointing as very little was shown and they more or less said home is coming out 2009. God of War 3 was cool but again it was CGI and really did not say much about the game so its hard to tell. I think thats more or less it, they showed a few PSN titles that interested me but over all it was very boring to watch at times, just a little too much PR even though Jack who gave the talk is a very cool guy.

Yea it could have been more interesting and I would have liked to have scene Motorstorm but it was a fine showing just nothing too big.

Microsoft E3 2008 Press Conference

It was quite an exciting day for Xbox 360 and future Xbox 360 owners. I will start of by saying I think the new dashboard looks great, who cares if Wii had avatars first they have done fuck all with them. Microsoft took a great idea, made it better and look like they will be put to good use. The new dashboard has a nice little 3D effect to it, as you sweep through the blades. A few don’t like it, but a lot of comments on blogs and forums that I have scene like the idea.

Apart from the over haul of look and design loads of new features are coming with the fall dashboard update including the ability to burn games you have on disk directly to your 360’s Hard Drive! I will be doing this with the likes of Halo 3 for sure.

But the big show for Microsoft was Gears 2. The Live demo they gave on stage was great with the game looking stunning all the way. Anyone else taking November 7th off? Microsoft had a good amount of causal stuff this year with the best being the Xbox Live TV Game show feature which looks great and Lips the singing game from the makes of elite beat agents.

In the end Microsoft kept one of the best to last as the head of square enix walked off stage after talking about a few RPG’s that where coming to the 360, Dom started to wrap up the show. How ever he returned, tapped him on the shoulder. telling him we have one more thing to show you tonight. They proceeded to announce that FF13 is coming to Xbox 360 at launch!

What They Go’ta Show

Microsoft
This E3 is going to be big for Microsoft, they have the most to gain and also could have the most to lose. First of all I really think Alan Wake and Peter Jackson’s Halo game need to show in some form. If we do not see them at E3 I would be very worried if we will ever see them. Gears 2 is going to be a big title for them this year and I think we need a new trailer and Live on stage gameplay demo, same goes for Halo Wars.

I think the biggest title of all could be what Bungie show, its 99.9% sure they will show something at Microsoft’s press event. It’s going to be one of three things, a totally new IP, a new Halo game that does not involve Spartan 117 or Peter Jackson’s Halo project. I think its most likely going to be A new Halo game (possibly the rumored ODST game) or a new IP.

Finlay I think they have something big for the casual market to show. It could be a motion controller or something but I think they might have something and it could be BIG, lets not forget about the leaked avatars system. O the new Banjo, after seeing gameplay its in my top 5 games for this year looks so fun and am sure we will see something from it too.

Sony
Sony need to stop announcing new stuff and announce when the current stuff in development is coming out. Home, Little big planet and loads of other stuff has been all talk talk talk. Killzones not till next year and we really need to see some good stuff from Sony hitting this year.

Motorstom 2 and Resistance 2 are going to be the big titles for them this year and they need to show trailers and gamplay demos of both, to get the hype really going. God of War is a massive IP for Sony and I think God of War III will get announce and arrive sooner than we think.

Small titles like Flow have been big for Sony too, so i think they need to talk about new stuff coming from those developers.

Nintendo
Animal Crossing Wii with good online play! nuff said!

E3 Starts Monday

Well its not long now till E3 starts and just to let you all know, I plan to make a good few posts over the few days that it runs, with my thoughts on the latest announcements and news. Any way for all us lot in the UK its a pain in the ass trying to convert the time of the different press conferences right? Well I have done it for you (see below). I also took the decision to rethink my current map in development and more or less start again. I learnt a lot from developing what I did of it and I am looking forward to really getting rid of flaws in the design this time around. Talk to you all soon!

Monday 14^th
Microsoft Press Conference - 18:30

Tuesday 15^th
Gears of War 2 Reception - 04:30
Nintendo Press Conference - 09:00
Sony Press Conference - 19:30

Bungie Day!

Happy Bungie day everyone. Yea today is 7/7 so that means its Bungie day again. They have a very nice offering for all of us as well. For today only you can get a free Bungie theme and some free gamer pics both of which are very nice after downloading them. Also starting today the new Halo map cold storage is out now on Marketplace for Free and the legendary map pack from now on will only cost 600MP. So overall a very cool offering from Bungie in my opinion and lets not forget Microsoft who host all this stuff and agreed to the price drop as well.

Have a great day and talk to you all soon.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Review

Metal Gear Solid 4, finally the end of Solid Snakes story. Its funny that the last one in the series would be the first one I ever bought. Its hard to know what to make of a game that was suppose to have cut scenes hitting the 90 minute mark. Well until you play it that is. First off I think it was a very wise decision to quite quickly give the player a short taste of gameplay. After the weird and very cool TV type thing that allows you to flick though several different channels you are presented with a very nice opening cut scene. Then quite quickly the player is able to take control of snake for a short time, to sneek towards a near by building as PMC’s and rebbles fight it out.  

The game will take control away again to fill you in a bit more on the story but in my opinion this is fine as you have had your first bit of gameplay and can now enjoy the cut scene. I think now is a good time to point out how interactive the cut scenes can be. First of all your standard in game real time cut scene allows you to use the D-Pad to zoom in and out as well as being able to move the camera around. This gives the feeling of being the director of the scene. At points where the story  covers important parts of previous metal gear games you can press X to get flash’s from the original games. Possibly the best feature off all is being able to press L1, to see things from a different view. I will never forget the scene where snake is moving around a wooden cabin with his pistol drawn and by pressing L1 you can see the scene in first person.

But lets get down to the gameplay its self. Movement works very well and the transition between the different positions is smooth. I did find snake didn’t respond how i wanted him to when crawling and going between first and third person view, but its a very minor problem. I did have a few issues with CQC and you really need to read though the manual to get all the different moves. Its a quite complex part of the game which does take time to learn. So I think some of the basics could have been more streamlined.

Sneaking is really what this games about, its possible never to kill an enemy in the entire game, not including bosses of course. The sneaking suit that allows you to blend in, works very well and can be used to great effect. I didn’t really find any issues with sneaking at all, the AI responds how you would think, although its certainly not the most realisric as its possible to lie on the ground in front of an enemy and have them not see you. Even with the sneaking suit, I don’t think its possible. But that’s all part of metal gear really so not a design flaw in my opinion.  

Despite what is an outdated way of telling story in games, metal gear solid has some great cut scenes and really fun gameplay. Fans are going to love some of the stuff you get to do in the game and it really ties up the series well. Its quite possibly one of the last games of this kind which makes it even more special.

Pro’s
-Great Story, with cut scenes better than moves
-Very fun and deep gameplay
-Very nice Graphics

Con’s
-Separate Multiplayer game that ships with it (Metal Gear Online), is shit!
-Cut scenes may be too long for some.
-First Person view has problems.

From The Battlefield, General Gaming Update

Finally got Battlefield Bad Company this week so I have been spending a good amount of time on that. The single player is actually really good apart from a few AI problems that bring it down. Its nice to have a story to it as well and the main characters are funny a good bit of the time. But like any Battlefield game multiplayer is where its at. Played a good few match’s so far and i know a lot of people are coming over to this from COD4.

The scale of the maps, audio and effects really make you feel like you are fighting in a massive battle. Its hard to explain but you will notice it your self when you play it. I also finished metal gear this well and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope to play through it again or at least some of the missions. Still playing good old alone in the dark as well. I am using the DVD skip feature though to get closer to the end. Its fun, but has problems?

So what are the rest of you playing? Let me know in the comments.

Changing Approach To Reviews

I feel as someone who is one day going to work in the industry, its important to look at how I talk about the games being put out. So as of now any reviews I post on this blog will be taking a different shape.

1. The reviews will be more critic and feedback focused. What was good about the game and where improvements could be made.
2. I am now going to use a new rating system of 1-5 stars.
3. My personal thoughts, experiences and opinions will still be a big part of the reviews.

So really what I am trying to do is write a review for the developers rather than consumers. People looking to buy the game will still be able to get an idea of what its like as well.

Development Objectives

I was feeling a big shit about some dev stuff last night so I said to my self, from now on everyday  I am going to set my self development objectives for each day. After the first day I can say it totally worked, I got a good amount of work done and fixed some stuff that was pissing me off. Its really a great motivator and makes me a lot more efficientat in my work. Its left me feeling happy to night, that I got work done and made major improvements to my current map and a model I am working on.

Its totally something I am going to do from now on as you just get more done when you have something to focus on. Now I am not going to sit down and plan out the next month just every night or when I finish up development for the day I am going to say realistically what am I going to do tomorrow.