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Awww Yeaaaah!

did Well, at least one person liked it.

PS- I did the original music here for Blade Kitten.

Now Playing: Go on. You’ll Never Guess

First Impressions

Graphics Upgrade

Single player

Can teach Guerrilla a  thing or three hundred about how to make a fun shooter

Halo 3 in comparison

Sound

Multiplayer

All in All

Now Playing: Anything with Halo in the title but not Reach

Yes, I’m that guy. The one replaying Halo 3 and Halo:ODST before Reach. As I write this, it’s now two days since Reach was released and my copy has just turned up. But I have the last two bits of ODST to replay and I liked them so much I just want to give it another go.

HALO 3

The thing that struck me playing through Halo 3 again was not how ugly the human faces are. Nor the the occasionally stiff animation. What leapt out was the fact that the levels nearly always followed the same formula. Start at point A- go to point B. Then go back to point A. From a production point of view its fantastic since you get to reuse the assets without the sections being cut and paste (another Bungie favourite). But the Halo deja vu persists.

Of course, Halo 3 has one of my favourite additions to the series- The scarab battles. I loved these first time around because Halo is one of the few games where replaying a large-scale battle can be fun until you beat them. The second playthrough (on Normal again since my first attempt to replay on Heroic met with failure) was easier and I tended not to get stuck going through the same section again and again. I still feel Bungie has made these huge levels, filled them with enemies, yet made it too easier to skip over some great battles.

HALO: ODST

2009′s full price expansion is still controversial in its brevity. But there are some who absolutely love the campaign that’s shorter than the average height of the finalists of the Herve Villechaise Cosplay contest. And I am one of them. ODST breaks up the action into sections of traversing the overworld and then intense battles told in flashback. The overworld is rather meh but the flashback battles are fantastic and are some of my favourite in the series. Oh dear, the facial models are uglier than the Elephant Man’s stuntman. Even ones modelled after Tricia Helfer and Nathan Fillion (he’s so dreamy). While hiring expensive voice actors (and their likenesses) for an expansion pack (we have three of the stars of TV’s Firefly here) might seem excessive, they do a very nice job.

I still like ODST but I’m powering through since I’ve heard only good things about Reach. Another 45 minutes and I can start!

Favourite Videogame Soundtracks pt 1

Today, I’d like to share with you some of my favourite Videogame Soundtracks for a generation of gamers who think the answer has either Band, Hero or Singstar in the title.

Some of these are title tracks that you hear every time you boot up the game and some from early levels that you play over and over. Familiarity may be a big part of why everyone loves them but they have to be good to start with.

First up is Jet Set Radio (AKA Jet Grind Radio)

Jet Set Radio burst forth in 1999 with it’s infectious mix of remixes and Japanese Electronica. Whilst the sequel has has good tunes in its own right, it’s the original that still sounds the business. The game itself is great but it’s the soundtrack that stands the test of time long after the disc has gathered a think layer of dust.

Medal of Honor

Michael Giaccino (who did ALIAS, Lost, Star Trek, etc) contributed one of the finest WWII themes ever and every time you watch Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan, you wish it had this music appended to it. It’s not just the fabulous theme tunes, but the soundtrack is so old skool you, you can see yourself standing dazed on the beaches of Normandy, looking for your arm.

Next up is the Metal Gear Solid soundtracks

The music for the various iterations has been handled by several of Konami’s internal artists with many of the later games using Harry Gregson-Williams, a respected action-movie composer. The original theme tune is still my favourite though it similarity to a traditional Russian piece of music has meant it is MIA from MGS4.

Donkey Kong Country

Rare appears on lists of best music rather more than they do on lists of best games. But their back catalogue is spectacular. I love the main DK theme but it’s actually the first level music I like the most (mainly from its use in DK64)

Duke Nukem

This is the Megadeth version of the theme tune. Sometimes I find the best way to find out how good an 8bit song is to see if people can update with modern synths/real instruments and not sound worse. This is one case where the original was attempting something very particular with limited hardware.

Guitaroo Man

Catchy as all fuck. Like syphillus in a Bangkok brothel.

Banjo Kazooie

Rare again. About the only thing I liked about Nuts and Bolts was the way the music was redone without the limitations of system memory and MIDI.

Katamari Damacy

This tune brings a smile on my dial whenever I hear it. The game may have gone from masterful to just meh but this music is fantastic. I will never buy a J Pop album but these songs are tempting.

Voodoo Vince

What? Well Voodoo Vince was a decent platformer from Microsoft for the original Xbox with a beautiful New-Orleans style jazz soundtrack. I don’t normally like New-Orleans style jazz soundtracks but this a good ‘un.

Still Alive (Portal)

Big shock this is here. I also like the theme music from TF2 despite despising the game.

No One Lives Forever

so TF2 shows I like faux 60′s spy themes. Sue me.

In the same vein- Space Channel 5

It’s actually remixed 1000 times in Space Channel 5, but Mexican Flyer is by Ken Woodman and His Piccadilly Brass circa 1966.

And how could you not have:

Samba De Amigo

This kind of breaks the rule but I like how music in games can make you like something you previously hated. I despised Samba De Janeiro when it was a huge summer hit in Europe around 97/98. yet I liked it when it was on the Dreamcast. I’d never listen to Offspring, but I can’t image Crazy Taxi without them. And I can’t play Tony Hawk 1 or 2 without those songs.

Yes, I also love Mario and Zelda tunes, but you’ve heard them all a million times anyway. We’ll hear from Cameron in time when he shares his picks. That will be in about two months time once we finish swapping floppies

Picture of the Day: Kristen Bell on 3D Games

Medal of Hhhhhhonor

In the wake of today’s more subdued and emotional MoH trailer, I don’t know if the more mature, subdued tone will resonate with people beyond older hardcore shooter fans as much as this might…

Mid 2010 Mini-Preview

So, we’ve had the glut of holdover games from 2009 mostly been released. Dante’s Inferno, Mass Effect 2, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII, Bioshock 2 and now Splinter Cell: Conviction are all out. Hell, Alan Wake is out in a timeframe that can be described as soon. We know a few of the big games later in the year (Medal of Honor, a new Call of Duty, maybe even Gran Turismo 5 and Little Big Planet 2), and of course many E3 announcements are anticipate, but what are we going to be playing or ignoring during the coming mid-year void. Will we have games like inFamous, Prototype and Red Faction to tide us over?

ALAN WAKE

It’s taken longer to develop than it took to get a black man in the White House without someone calling the cops. Will Remedy’s thriller entertain us more than Max Payne?

LOST PLANET 2: MORE LOSTER

The 3rd-person shooter that bushwacked you and became a mech game is back. Does this one start as a mech game and become an on-foot shooter?

SKATE 3.

So EA/Black Box didn’t go the cool route and call it Skat3. Of course you just know what the 8th installment is going to be called, don’t you. Continuing to use the Flick-It control system, the only time a control system is named after a popular method for disposing of boogers; Skate 3 drives home the final nails in the coffin of the Tony Hawk series almost as fast as Activision. Coming Soon: Tony Hawk:Shred, then Tony Hawk: Please followed by Tony Hawk: Pretty Please.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: FORGOTTEN SANDS OF TIME STORYLINE

Prince of Persia has been reinvented more times than Cher’s ass, so this game of the movie of the game features Jake’s Abs. While Sands of Time was my favourite PoP game, it is the only one I liked. And Jake is no Nolan.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION

An open world sequel to GUN Red Dead Revolver, Rock Star San Diego’s latest has been shrouded in controversies over working conditions and publishers attempting to influence review scores. Is it going to be as much fun as Red Faction or Just Cause 2. Or is it going to be as mundane as GTA IV?

BLUR

Bizzarre Creations first racing game for new owners Activision is likely to give former PGR fans a run for their money. Being Activision, literally giving them a run for their money.

METAL GEAR PEACE WALKER

See Hideo make a PSP game. See Konami flushing money down the toilet in the US and Europe as this title hits pirate websites faster than a casual MGS fan skips a cutscene. “Snake, do you think love can” *Presses Triangle*

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

It would be hilarious if some kind of reference to Tiger’s personal issues were made. “Tiger’s scored a hole in one” takes on a new meaning

METROID: OTHER M

The other M stands for M&M. MMmmmmmmmmm

APB

Real-Time Worlds’ MMO-esque gangster game, their follow up to Crackdown and one hell of an awesome-sounding project. PC only, but don’t that against this.

QUANTUM THEORY

A Japanese take on Gears of War. Except it’s Japanese and the guy through he throws his partner through the air. So it’s Japanese.

CRACKDOWN 2

YES! CRACKDOWN 2. Cam is looking forward to getting  this game for free from some random person and jumping off the roof of a building. I think he intends on recording a podcast via Skype on the way down.

oh and Mafia II, Kane and Lynch 2 (Giant Bomb’s GOTY), Dead Rising 2. In amongst all of this will be Modern Warfare 2 map packs, Halo Reach Beta and hopefully some download only gems.

That should be enough to tide most of us over until Halo Reach, Portal 2 and Gran Turismo turn up from September onwards…

For my sins I can only see myself grabbing Alan Wake, Crackdown 2 and maybe APB with an outside possibility of Red Dead Redemption. How ’bout you?

Gaming on the Oh So Cheap- HD Edition

So hands up who has spent large parts of their life unable to buy all the latest games? I know I spent most of the 90′s being either underemployed or just plain out of work. Whether you’re a kid, student, unemployed, have kids are are just gosh darn poor; gaming can be an expensive business. It’s very easy to game for cheap- buy a PS2 and partake in the thousands of games available in bargain bins, thrift stores, Ebay and the like. But here’s a guide to how you can get the costs of playing a Wii, PS3, PC and Or Xbox 360 down whilst keeping up with the Joneses- most of the time. Using this post as a guide won’t get you every game at launch but may at least help.

Pick what you buy/ Buy it when you have time to play it: Of course, the most important thing is to only get games you are likely to enjoy. I know this sounds obvious but it is important. Every time I hear about someone’s gaming backlog you feel like throttling them. A backlog and being cheap does not compute since any games you don’t start straight away may fall in price by the time you get to play them. It’s silly to buy a game for $50, let it sit on a shelf at home for six months while you play other games, and then play your $50 game when it’s on sale at EB for $10. If you are playing a game that you enjoy, finish it before you get the next game. If there’s a demo of a game you’re interested in- play that to see whether it’s going to be your cup of tea. Often you will avoid some bad games. Sometimes a demo will turn you off but the full game is much better. This is where anecdotal evidence comes into play. I only bought Red Faction after hearing so many stories about how much fun it was.

How long are you honestly going to play it for? Why the fuck did I buy Buzz or Singstar, I barely played either. Why did I buy House of the Dead Overkill- I barely played that. Why did I buy Banjo Kazooie: nuts and Bolts despite hating the demo? I’d love to play Beatles Rock Band but the fact I’m going to play it for an hour puts me off. A few years ago, I came up with a metric- 1 hour of play for every $10 it cost to buy. I still sort of live by this- or at least feel more comfortable with a game once I’ve hit the threshold. One year I had GH World Tour bundle, Fallout 3, BK Nuts and Bolts and Prince of Persia and the time I put into Fallout 3 more or less paid for the others (the same year, I had Gears 2, Fable II, LBP, CoD WaW and Mirror’s Edge but they all easily paid for themselves).

The Waiting Game: Simple fact is most games will drop in price within a year of release. Greatest Hits or Platinum games are a given. inFamous came out midway through 2009, made a decent splash on the NPD’s yet was a greatest hit at less than half the price within only a few months on market. Games that don’t perform to expectations, such as Bayonetta (released January, sold OK but not as well as Sega would have liked, seen for around 30% cheaper) or sent to die by the publisher like The Saboteur (similar pricing after 6 months on the market. Games don’t even have to be a flop for publishers to dump. Red Faction Guerrilla was a decent hit last year but they are practically giving it away with Corn Flakes these days. The longer you wait, the more the price will drop though there’s no rule of thumb as to how long you might wait. Of course, some games never drop. The original Halo was full price for several years before it finally dropped, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has only dropped because the sequel is out. Absolute bombs will drop faster than an original Xbox in a pond. Dark Void came out a few months ago and today I read it’s 1/4 of it’s new price at one local discount store. But that’s an ordinary game and you need to avoid those.

If you like sports games, it’s funny how EA pumps one out every year. Madden 2011 will be out soon, meaning Madden 2010 will be cheaper. So online play may be compromised by EA, but if you just want a solo game of NHL 08, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to find. Tiger Woods games may, for some reason, be cheaper at the moment. If for some reason, you wanted to play the Vancouver 2010 game, or the World Cup Soccer game, see how cheap they are a few weeks after the event has finished. Seasonal games have inbuilt obsolescence after a very short window of relevancy. The same with that tie-in game for a Harry Potter Movie or any other big summer blockbuster. I bet you can find GI:Joe quite cheaply.

Who knew Guitar Hero and Rock Band instrument kits would become so cheap this year? Aren’t we all kicking ourselves for buying last year?

Shopping Around/ Choose Your Retailer: I can go buy a game from a variety of retailers. Some will feature a game at full recommended retail no matter what other places are selling for. Well don’t go there to buy games. I can go to others who will advertise lower prices. I go there. In Australia I would often buy from Discount Department Stores (Kmart, Target or Big W) or JB Hi-Fi (hard to describe- sells HiFi, TV, games, movies, music and has a low-rent at most but there are hundreds of stores) and never from premium department stores or rarely from specialist games retailers like Game, Game Traders or EB Games. Mom and pop outfits don’t exist here but since there’s at least one EB or Game in any shopping mall (no matter how small it seems), you’d think they’d use their buying power to offer a lower price? Think again.

Price-Matching. So the place that says they will not be undersold doesn’t actually offer a decent price on a game. But if you can show them proof of a competitor selling it cheaper, you might be in luck. I’ve only successfully done this once (at EB for Fable II) and not-so-successfully for GTA IV so It can be an exercise in futility.

Timing: This is important. Every country has this at different times but there are two times each year when I know when there will be big sale on games, often quite recent ones. Just after Christmas or in June around the end of the Financial Year in Australia. Now that’s different in most countries but they are a great sales magnet since companies want to divest themselves of as much stock as possible. After Christmas is good because it’s often a way to get good games that didn’t do so well at retail quite cheaply. I have a rule- Try not to Buy a Ubisoft game at launch unless it’s a hit. I can’t tell you how many January Sales at EB have depressed me because that Rainbow Six game I bought before Christmas is now half price. Not every game but any- I mean Assassin’s Creed II price has held up, but the 2008 Prince of Persia game price went south faster than a coed on Spring Break (whatever the fuck that means). Stocktake sales, usually near these big Finance milestones can also offer booty, and of course there’s Black Friday in the US.

Steam: So steam is great for a PC gamer since they are practically giving away older games. Psychonauts for $2? Maybe that’s not such a great example but I’m still pleased with getting Batman AA and Just Cause for just over $20 recently. I mean they’ve already done big discounts on Left 4 Dead 2 and had weekends where you could play some of their games for free. Now, Steam, outside of the US, can be a bit hit or miss. A famous story is how when when CoD4 came out on steam, people in Australia could by the Steam version for US$50- with the exchange rate at the time, it was a hell of a lot cheaper than buying instore. Someone realised this and the Steam version shot up to US$88 if your account was an Australian one. Same thing happened with Borderlands and more recently, BC2.

SELL, SELL, SELL: Don’t be a collector hoarder if you can’t afford it. Finished with Bioshock 2? Are you ever ever ever going to replay it? Sell it while it’s still worth something. The secret to selling something is to not say “it cost me $50 so I’m selling it for $50.” Find out how much the cheapest that game is new and then sell it for less than that. Borderlands is now $40? Offer it for $30. Trading in to EB/ Gamestop is sorta worth it if you do it in the first few days of the games release but do it yourself and it will pay for itself.

Import (note: not always applicable to the US): Being from Australia, I’m used the Australian Dollar being fairly low compared to most other currencies. At the moment it’s worth more than ever against other currencies so I’m importing a bit. But even when when we referred to the Kanga-Dollar as the Aussie Peso, importing was a way to save money. Even now, Splinter Cell: Conviction is around AU$88-$98 in stores (cheapest at launch was at Target for $78)but only $55 shipped from Play Asia. And Play Asia’s weekly special can often bring some welcome treats such as Bioshock 2 for US$33. And they give you a $5 coupon with each purchase (the trick is to not use everyone of them). There are others such as Zavvi, 365 games, CDWow (mostly UK versions). I found Play-Asia to often offer Asian Versions, which are still in full English but you might get some Chinese/ Korean characters on the box. My copy of Crackdown has a Manga-style cover- the disc contents are the same as the US version. What I have found funny in the past is getting the Australian versions of games from Play-Asia for much cheaper than buying from shops. The other thing is, not all games sell as well in different territories. Singstar in the US isn’t as ubiquitous as the UK, same with Eye Toy. 360 games won’t sell as well in Europe as the UK so there may be some specials to be had by trying other regions.

There are caveats to importing. First, we’ll assume you’re such a tightwad that you don’t have an imported console. So you need to be sure the game you buy is Region Free, or at least compatible with your machine. So PS3 games are almost all Region Free (the only exception I can think of is Stranglehold Special Edition), all Wii games are region-locked and all DS/PSP games on disc/cart are region free (not necessarily download versions, though).

Most- BUT NOT ALL- Xbox 360 games are region Free. Places like Play-Asia will mention which regions the games will play on. A quick google serach of the name of the game along with the phrase region free will yield the answer- though most of the results pre-release are, er , dodgy. Sites like vgplus.blogspot.com are useful in determining region status- NOTE: THIS APPLIES TO BLU-RAY MOVIES AS WELL (http://bluray.liesinc.net and http://movietyme.blogspot.com/ are good resources though I guess if you’re cheap, you’ll be sticking with DVD and the like).

Lastly- PS3 patches are region free along with the games. BUT THE DLC IS NOT REGION FREE. If you have a US version of game, you need to make a US PSN account to buy the DLC, etc. If you have say, the Asian version of Burnout Paradise, you can’t use a Euro PSN account to buy DLC. Well, you can still buy it, it just won’t show up in the game. YOU FUCKERS SONY!

Research: So sites like (US) http://www.cheapassgamer.com/ and (AU) ecogamer.com can help get you deals as can the flyers, circulars and other assorted Junk Mail you get in your physical mail box. I used to pour over these each week but these days I have a “No FUCKING Junk Mail” sign on the front of the house- which keeps 99% of junk mail away. Of course, most bricks and mortar stores all replicate their catalogues online now anyway and still more sites collate these and rehost them ie cataloguecentral.com.au

Rent: Why buy when you can rent from Netflix or Blockbuster?

Borrow: Here’s where being a social outcast bites you in the bum but if you have a friend who buys all the latest, try borrowing games when they’re done.

DLC: Here’s the biggest way to save money. Don’t buy DLC. It’s rare that DLC is so compelling you must have it. Fallout 3 offered five extra DLC missions and by all accounts, none was worth it. Even better was the fact if you waited a year, you could get the GOTY edition with all of the DLC missions.

ReIssues: Why are you buying Super Street Fighter IV?

Collector’s Editions: Unless you manage to get these for the same price as the standard edition- avoid. Do you really need a cat helmet or night vision goggles?

Multiplayer: A good multiplayer game can last for months. I played CoD4 with workmates for nearly two years. They lasted  two weeks on MW2 before giving up and playing CoD4 again. I think they’re back to CoD 2 for now. It’s hit and miss as to what takes off but it’s rarely from an unknown source these days. you can expect a Valve MP game to last a long time ( I know i was able to play Day of Defeat Source online for several months last year). I’m guessing Epic and id didn’t expect Quaker Wars and Unreal III to die so quickly.

iPhone/iPod Touch: So if you already have one of these, there are thousands of games for far less than you would pay for the same/similar thing on DS or PSP.

This may be of less use but…

Friends in High Places: If you know someone who works at a publisher or publisher-owned developer, they can often get games from their employers catalogue at a  substantial discount.

Tax: If by some chance you can actually work making games, you could be able to claim a tax deduction (Important to note: THIS IS DEPENDING ON YOUR COUNTRY’s TAX LAWS- SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE BECAUSE I AM MANY THINGS BUT I AM NOT AN ACCOUNTANT)

Start a videogame website: You might get the chance to get freebies. LOL

So there you have a cheat sheet for being a cheap-ass. You could go even cheaper and do what Cam does and never play anything new unless he gets it as a present or freebie from a publisher for his day job.

Controller1.com: Under Renovation

You may have noticed a bit of a change in the way the site looks. I’m hoping the new layout is a bit cleaner but I will be doing some more tampering over the next few days. Will be trying to make the site more presentable and reduce clutter. If there are any issues on your browser, email chief@controller1.com, but let me know what browser you are using.

We have a new logo and even a favicon (works on Firefox and Safari but not IE). Something simple since it’s a simple website

REAL LIFE STORIES- Feb 2010

Occasionally gaming comes up in real life and gives you pause for thought. The other day I attended a barbecue at a friend’s house. He was moving overseas for a new job and had invited a lot of his childhood friends, his high school friends, and some work friends. It was interesting to see a person’s life divided up into stages and the types of friends they had through each stage.

(if you aren’t a fan of more mundane stories, come back next time. Also, we talk about these events on the next podcats so feel free to wait for that)

So the childhood friends were all tall, slightly jock-like though always friendly and inclusive. After lunch, these guys retired to the lounge to play Boom Blox. I joined them for a bit and they (never having played it before) handed me my ass. These guys worked in local radio and the like.
The high school friends were much shorter, some were accountants, and Asian (from various parts). These guys were into anime and JRPG’s big time. After lunch, these guys decamped to a family room to play fighting games on a PSOne.

So, as my friend is moving away to Quebec for work in the cold, we all sweltered in the Aussie heat to bit my friend adieu. One of the High School friends presented to our mutual friend a boxed Famicom version of Final Fantasy VI. My friend is grinning away like mad showing it off to us as we line up at the makeshift buffet. He shows me and I just casually joke “What’s the matter? Doesn’t he like you?” After that, I just laughed and moved off to get my lunch. My wife noticed the expression on the giver’s face. She described it as someone who’s just taken a knife to the chest.
Later in the day as I’m wandering around and High School Friends are huddled away from everyone else, I overhear Chief Otaku describing, in detail, fine variations in packaging, translations and other assorted facts of import to those who worship at the altar of Square. “It’s not been the same since Enix,” apparently.

Over the years, I have often taken a contrary stance on some videogames franchises. I dislike most Japanese games yet love Metal Gear, Katamari, Mario and Zelda. I dislike most RPG’s yet love Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. AS I hang around nerds who play a variety of games, it is not uncommon to overhear conversations about why Killzone 2 is better than Halo, why Forza is better than Gran Turismo, why consoles are shit (heavy PC bias at my place of work you understand). I have just grown a thick skin when someone bags CoD or Halo and just heap shit on TF2 and WoW in return. It’s jokes. But I mortally wounded Chief Otaku that day.

Another thing is the loud and often pious whingeing I’ve been enduring. As I said, I work with a lot of people who are big PC gamers. These days there are few PC only games since the games actually sell better on consoles. So the topic du jour is often how console versions are the cause of PC games not being up to snuff.

Funnily enough, it not because of Modern Warfare 2 where feature parity between consoles and PC is do the detriment of the PC version. It’s EA’s upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The first game was 360/PS3 only and it looked and played great (I played on PS3). Same with Battlefield 1943 (played on 360), which uses the same Frostbite engine as the Bad Company games. So the guys I used to play CoD4 with were hoping BBC2 would lift them out of the doldrums that MW2 apparently put them in. So a bunch of us preordered on steam. Some got the beta and played it, a beta which is the source of anguish for a many with an expensive PC rig. Forgetting the fact that it is a BETA (ie not final or finished) and the fact that these whingers MAKE GAMES FOR A LIVING AND ARE SPENDING 95% OF THEIR WORK TIME WITH UNFINISHED AND OFTEN BROKEN GAMES, some have decided to cancel their preorder (which Steam doesn’t make easy).

So I’m stuck with a PC version even though I’d prefer the 360 version at this stage. Oh well.

In other news, Mass Effect 2 is the shiz. A Now Playing will be coming soon.