Originally posted on Destructoid.com
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA as they’re more commonly known, have always championed the British video games industry. Thanks to their influence, video games have been given a platform as an art form which we can celebrate and publicise to the general public. The most notable event they hold is the annual British Academy Video Games Awards, but this isn’t the only event they hold. BAFTA are also responsible for hosting a number of talks, lectures and Q&A sessions throughout the year, which have had many guest speakers ranging from Peter Molyneux and Will Wright, to Tameem Antoniades (from Ninja Theory) and Alex Evans (from Media Molecule).
The best part about these talks is that they are open to the public; anyone can turn up and a ticket only costs you a measly £5 if you are not a BAFTA member. Earlier this month BAFTA held a very special Q&A session with Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software to talk about Duke Nukem Forever. Always very charismatic, Randy gave us a very interesting look into the world of Duke, Gearbox and shared with us some very interesting stories.
Many would agree that Sonic the Hedgehog hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to making great games over the years. Sega’s mascot has had his fair share of ups and downs over the course of his career and while he still proves to be popular with the younger generation, many old school fans have been left alienated and ultimately disappointed by his later games.
After a string of critical failures, Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in October 2010 which was supposed to signal a turning point for the spiky blue hedgehog; a sign that Sonic was returning to his roots and prove that Sega had not turned their backs on their fans and could deliver a strong classic Sonic game. Unfortunately in many people’s eyes, Sega failed. Sonic 4 was met with very mixed reactions and so was Sonic’s latest 3D outing on the Wii. While Sonic 4 was meant to appeal to the old school crowd, Sonic Colours which was released in November 2010 was made for the younger audience who has grown up with a different kind of Sonic game. It’s no surprise then that older gamers shunned Sonic Colours for not providing the experience they’ve been craving despite the fact that while it is flawed, it’s still quite fun.
Both Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours are not bad games; they are merely not what a lot of fans envisioned as classic or great Sonic games. However, they also demonstrate just how fragmented the Sonic fan base truly is and that even the fans themselves are confused by the physiology of a great Sonic game. To mark Sonic’s 20th anniversary, Sega have announced a brand new Sonic game to mark the occasion. Sonic Generations is trying to do what Sonic 4 and Sonic Colours arguably didn’t; provide a classic old school 2D Sonic game and a 3D Sonic game that lives up to his legacy but this time, on one disk. After seeing his last two efforts, should we really put our faith in Sega and their mascot once more?
In short, the answer is yes.
Originally posted on Destructoid.com
On the 25th March 2011 Nintendo unleashed their latest handheld to the great British public. HMV on Oxford Circus in London was chosen to host the monumental official midnight launch event and managed to draw in a rather respectable crowd.
Approximately 200 eager Nintendo fans descended upon the launch, which isn’t exactly the huge numbers we’re normally accustomed to for a major hardware launch but when you consider that two other retailers (GAME and Currys Digital) were also hosting midnight launches then it’s not so bad. Perhaps the insane price war lead the majority of consumers to shop online but that’s another story; this is about the launch.
Originally posted on Destructoid.com
Back in 2009 Codemasters attempted to bring the Operation Flashpoint franchise back up to speed with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. It received a mixed response from fans but earned a modest Metacritic score of 76% with mostly positive reviews from the gaming press. Over a year later and Codemasters is due to release the next game in the series, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, on the 21st of April 2011 in Europe and Australia and on the 26th of April in North America. With absolutely no competitive multiplayer aspects, a heavy co-op focus, along with gameplay mechanics designed to simplify and streamline the experience; is Red River the Operation Flashpoint game that fans and newcomers alike have been craving for?
Without question, Mario is one of, if not the most famous video game character of all time and is as popular now as he was when he first jumped onto the scene in 1981. He is the face and mascot of one of the biggest video games companies in the world and a global icon. However, the sad truth is that if he was introduced to the world today as a brand new intellectual property he would be ignored and Nintendo would be ridiculed for creating such a preposterous character. When you think of modern day gaming icons the first who spring to mind are probably Lara Croft (from the Tomb Raider games), the Master Chief (from the Halo franchise) or Kratos (of God of War fame) who all share some similarities with each other but hardly any with the famous Nintendo mascot. Mario was definitely a product of the time and created out of the necessity for Nintendo to have a hit game with a unique character but while other video game characters experienced a similar level of fame and adoration, only Mario is as popular today as he was back in the old days. An overweight, Italian plumber who absorbs mushrooms to double in size isn’t how most people would describe their ideal hero or video game character but yet as his latest game “Super Mario Galaxy 2” demonstrates he still has massive selling power as over 300 people queued up to celebrate the midnight launch of “Super Mario Galaxy 2” and meet Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario. When you consider that Mario doesn’t actually speak very much apart from his signature “WHOO HOO!” this is quite an impressive feat. So why do we love Mario? What is it about him and the games he features in that gives him this everlasting popularity?
So E3 2010 is right around the corner, big news is going to be dropped and quite possibly the future of video games will be seen. We already know that Project Natal, PlayStation Move and the Nintendo 3DS will have quite a large showing but what else could be announced? Here’s a short list of what I think/hope will be revealed at E3 2010.
Like most licensed video games the last few Transformers games haven’t exactly been met with a lot of praise and Transformers: War for Cybertron seemed set to change that. Set on the home world of Cybertron, with all the most memorable characters, no humans, a whole new story, attention to detail that is aimed specifically at the hardcore Transformers fans (Soundwave transforms into a boom box!) and possibly most important of all is the fact that it is not tied to any upcoming movie, this looked like the Transformers game fans have been patiently waiting for. Although I may not be the most hardcore Transformers fan around, I did grow up watching the cartoon, I collected a few of the toys and have read a number of the comics and was rather optimistic about this new video game. I recently managed to check out a small portion of the game and thought I’d write down my initial impressions of it. I should also mention that I played the beginning of the Autobot campaign and took control of Optimus. I pretty much skipped all the cutscenes and rushed through the dialog sections so I’m not really sure how well the story is written or paced but it seemed quite good from the brief snippets I saw. Anyway here’s a quick rundown of what I thought of it.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to claim that Green Day are currently one of the biggest bands in the world and have enjoyed all the success, turmoil and criticisms that come with an illustrious career such as theirs. Formed in 1987, Green Day have produced eight studio albums (not including the greatest hits and B-sides/rarities compilations), won four Grammy awards (being nominated multiple times and for many other awards) and sold over 22 million records in the US alone. A quick look at their discography which includes iconic albums “Dookie” and “American Idiot” and it’s easy to see why the band is so revered and why they deserve their own Rock Band game. Recently Harmonix has divulged information about Green Day: Rock Band including the games entire track list and the venues used within the game. Fans have praised some choices but have voiced disappointment in others which begs the question “are the fans being unreasonable and are these disappointments justified?”
Fighting game enthusiasts will know the name Guilty Gear. It was a series that along with the King of Fighters franchise that could truly challenge the Street Fighter games for the crown of best 2D fighter. Unfortunately due to a legal loophole Guilty Gear’s developer Arc System Works had lost the Guilty Gear rights to Sega Sammy but now they return with a whole new franchise to once again challenge Capcom and in this case Street Fighter IV for the title of best 2D fighting game. In actuality, Arc System Works returned last year on the 30th June when BlazBlue was released in North America. A whole nine months later, European fighting game fans can sample Arc System Works latest game but the question is, has it been worth the wait?
With several key members of Infinity Ward leaving the studio, questions have been raised over what will become of the Call of Duty (CoD) franchise. Activision has recently announced that a new “Action-adventure” CoD game is in the works, so what can we infer from this announcement and what could this drastic change for the series lead to? Since there are no concrete details of this new game, can we speculate on what this game could be like and how it may ultimately change the CoD franchise forever? Yes we can!
The Other Castle 