Well looky here:

Certainly looks similar huh.

(This blog post is taken from an old post on my other blog over at Gamespot avaliable here)  
 
Many of us are very fond of the good old XBOX live service. It has evolved leaps and bounds over the last few years, however now we sadly say goodbye to the old service, and make way for an expanded current LIVE service.

The old LIVE service, gave a platform for games to have multiplayer functionality for the original XBOX.

Its second iteration is the current live service and spans not only over the XBOX 360 markey, but the PC market also with games for windows LIVE.

However, the microsoft blog stated that on the 15th April, they will "discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games", continuing "The best is yet to come".

They stated that they "did not make this decision lightly", continuing to say that the change was mandatory to allow the "evolving the Live service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live community".

Sad news indeed as it is yet another reason not to bother picking up XBOX games any more. What with very limited backwards compatability, it would be great to keep multiplayer for those game which do have backwards compatability patches.

To say also that the death of the old LIVE service is needed to evolve the current LIVE service creates some questions however, like: why?

Whats wrong with melting both together, or making it so LIVE has an update to allow multiplayer from the original XBOX and 360 to be on the same service because lets face it, it CAN be done.

Its not like it cant, they have the experience to do it and sure as hell have the money.

In any case, sad news, but if it genuinely benefits the current service (again, how?), then I guess its for the best.

(This blog post is taken from an old post on my other blog over at Gamespot avaliable here)  
 

Its been some time since I last read a comic I must admit and the last one I properly read (up until last week however) was Sonic the Comic back in the early 2000's.

Comics never really appealed to me that much, I was too busy being wrapped up in all the wonder of my SNES, Playstation and wondering if a new Playstation 2 was coming my way at christmas... which it wasnt.

However, Im diverting here, what Im saying is that while all the other kids read comics and enjoyed them, and still do I ,in many ways didnt understand the appeal and didnt really therefore understand completely why people read them. Of course as Ive got older ive grown respect for comics, but I still didnt really understand the appeal. Needless to say I like reading them but theres a connection between the reader and the comic that makes the experience worthwhile.

Now, saying this, imagine my suprise when I see a comic reader appear as software on my PSP. Having found no use for my PSP for a while I installed it and ran it thinking "ah its worth a shot and Ive got 5 minutes free from my Uni studies".

I wasnt disappointed. What I expected was a Adobe PDF reader type of program where i could simply use the analogue stick to move around the screen. What I got however was a code for a free comic and a very snazzy looking interface. "Great stuff. I need to read more comics" I thought.

I downloaded the comic which was a sinch thanks to the PSP's streamlined account interface and away I went. The comic was a Transformers one which was a plus cause I loved transformers.

As I loaded the software it found the comic no problem and lightning fast too.

What appeared on screen next was one of the most impressive narrative based literature-based pieces of work I have ever seen.

The screen loads with the cover of the comic in Question. It scrolls from top to bottom and then zooms to full page. Instantly on the first and even contents pages, the story comes to life!

The most important and possibly the most integral feature to this programs application and success, is the way the screen moves. It is designed to accurately and realistically match where the user would look on the page and at what time like an interactive novel.

It really brings the screen to likfe and it adds so much more to the experience of reading. And this is only a start. SOny have said that future versions will include audio also, so that could be anywhere between narration and just SFX, but in any case, the experience is great as it is.

Ultimately, If you like comics, or even if you dont, check this thing out, its well worth it!

  Its amazing, looking at load of games in this modern day, everything in them from the lighting to the environments look great.

Many games such as Dead Space, Doom 3 and of course Gears of War all show a brilliant use of lighting to effectively convey emotions or the locale, where other games such as Mario Bros and Crysis have blisteringly crisp audio.

But of late I have been playing Grand Theft Auto IV again, I still havent completed it because Its the PC version and so my temprement for it went out of the window.

Anyway, playing through it some more recently seriously shocked me at how real this game looks in terms of environment modelling and lighting.

These two elements put together create something that is so full of emotion and depth I actually feel Im there sometimes. Its true. Looking at the audio direction, its clearly aparrent that rockstar have gone above and beyond creating audio based immersion also.

Simple touches such as cars braking sound realistic and the NPC dialogue actually makes sence. You actually have the feeling it could be audio from a big city, right now, live! Needless to say rockstar acheived with this game a level of detail and feel of scale that is, as far as I can see... unparalelled.

Last year I did a complete analytical look at the game and what can I say, the end result concluded that the environment and lighting were some of the best parts of the game.

Of course, with the inclusion of rear real graphics, its far too easy to fall into the uncanny valley, and this is easily visable with the characters who look formed, but as usual the eyes give the game away.

Saying that though, it ishard in this day and age to effectively acheive what you want from a game. Its good to get the story, narrative, audio and most visuals down, but to create emotion and realism on the same scale that Rockstar did, now thats art in its own right.

Playing previous iterations of the GTA series such as GTA 3 and San Andreas (needless to say I have them all), none have the same atmosphere as this game. Interestingly even games such as Gran Tourismo dont even look this good.

Dont get me wrong, games like GT look shockingly good, but what rockstar did with environment modelling and the lighting remains, as far as I can see, unbeaten, as these werent just for eye candy, they set the tone and ultimately, feel, of the game from the get go.

Sadly, I cant see the PC version at full settings, but from what I can render on screen (and thats actually pretty close to the full XBOX-like quality) I can see that this is one stunning game and one that will remain the fore-runner of realistic in-game lighting for a long time.

In my opinion at least.

Over the past few months, Ive had the great* task of thoroghly and critically analyzing a game. I wont go into why I must but needless to say its the most horrible assignment Ive ever been given.

Guess why? I was given London Racer (PSX).

The sheer nature and content of this game is of such a standard its probally not worth even writing a full analytical review here, instead,I shall write a difinitive list of 100 things the creators of London Racer, Davilex, could do to make the game better:

1. Un-publish it
2. Use it as a coaster
3. Stamp on it
4. Melt it
5. Cast it into the sun
6. Use as mirror
7. Frizbee
8. Use as dog toy
9. Keep case for another game
10. Strap CD to bomb
11. Dont aknowledge its existence... oh, wait...
12. Stick two together: Novelty glasses
13. Sharpen edges, use as a saw
14. Turn into necklace
15. Put 2 together, Bikini!
16. Melt down and re-mould as something better... like FFIIV...
17. Melt down and re-sell plastic
18. Snap CD in two
19. Use as shiv
20. Attatch to baloon, and see how high it goes
21. Use it to repel alien brain washing devices (hang from roof)
22. Annoy people on train by reflecting light off CD
23. Attatch to feet in winter and use as skis
24. attatch CDS to wall, retro art!
25. Draw on it
26. Skeet shooting
27. Use as target at shooting ranges
28. Use as Dog poop-a-scoop-a
29. Use as an object to draw around
30. Drill holes in it and use as an spirograph
31. Drill a hole in it...
32. Stick it in a microwave
33. Use as a stress relief. Snap it when a good game annoys you
34. Disguise as change and give it to a hobo
35. put it into a broken CD drive and send the drive to be repaired, hopefully theyll just issue you a new drive in return
36. Paint pink and disguise as ham
37. Throw into ravive and see how far you can skip it
38. Set on fire and frizbee into the night sky
39. Stack a few to even a wonky table/chair
40. Grab two and ping pong ball, use as raqet and play table tennis
41. Competitions! How many can you snap in 10 minutes?
42. Use as an electric conductor in scientific experements
43. Geek bling hub caps
44. Dangle from fishing rod in front of camera: Cheesy ufo in home movie
45. Make into a clock
46. Ran out of toilet paper?
47. Waft away an unpleasant smell
48. Use as bottle opener
49. Use to pry open awkward boxes
50. Christmas present for someone you dont like
51. Birthday present for someone you dont like
52. Lock in time capsule then bury it... then cement over it... on the side of a volcano
53. Use it to clean gunk out of keyboard
54. Roll over with a steam roller to discover how flat it can go
55. Put in oven and see how long it takes to melt
56. Use to burn stuff by reflecting sun
57. Leave under someones windscreen wiper like a parking ticket
58. Use to scoop dog food biscuits out of bag
59. Melt and re-mould as lego
60. Wedge open windows and doors
61. use as bookmark
62. cut into star and put on top of christmas tree
63. Use as ice scraper for car windows
64. Scoop away snow
65. Erase data on disk and write something more useful onto it
66. Draw a man on it with his crotch over the hole and stick your pinky through
67. Beer mat
68. Throw it into the ocean with address written on it, see which country it ends up in... youll probally get it back with a death threat on it however.
69. Ditch that crazy girl whos stalking you by confessing your love for the game
70. Make crap games look good by comparison, hold it upto a rubbish game and viola! Pippa Funnels pony express looks somewhat tangiable... but not much.
71. Cut it up into small plastic meccano pieces
72. Pat butcher ear-rings (google it for my international readers)
73. Stack up and glue together, perfect doorstop!
74. Bookmark
75. The relist game, see how many times it doesnt sell on ebay, get relist highscores!
76. Use as snow shoes
77. Dangle from trees to scare birds
78. Sharpen and use as make-shift razor for shaving
79. Use to peel fruit
80. Attatch to stick and turn into fly swatter
81. Tile your floor with them
82. Scratch up the CD and mail it back to Davilex
83. At a friends house, pick up a good game and swap disks
84. Windsheild cover
85. At haloween, place on in a trick or treaters bag
86. Use as wheels on a trolley
87. Chop up and use as decorative gravel
88. Use as a decorative facefplate for headphones
89. Trapped on an island with about 1000 copies? Spell out SOS with them
90. Glue loads together and attatch chain to them, makeshift mace
91. Use as test subject for a braniac experiment
92. Cut out plectrums out of the CD
93. Drop one bedind you every couple of meters as a way of tracking where you have been
94. Use as headband for ponytails
95. Glue to forehead and look like a doctor
96. Glue some end on end and use as blinds
97. Cut out some fan blades and attatch to motor, cheap-o fan
98. Frizbee at people you dont like
99. Use to scrape out rat cage
100. Make sure you have completely and fully achieved number 1

*dubious

Animal Crossing, It's a fantastic game. You start your life as a small disfigured character and wander aimlessly through fields of lush grass, small buildings and flowers. But I can't help feel that over the years Animal Crossing has lost its charm. When I first picked it up in 2004, I was subjected to a burst of colour so great I lost at least 4 months of my life to my GameCube. Back then, and to be honest even now, I as a person, love collecting. Back in the good old days I loved unlocking everything in every game I had and Ocarina of Time almost killed me but needless to say Animal Crossing was right up my avenue.

The amount of things you could do, the things you could collect. You could hang out in town, do chores, go to the lost and found for a quick buck and look forward to what would be in Nooks Cranny every morning. One other thing you could do is play video games. Yes, NES games in a GameCube Game.

Not only could you do pretty much anything you wanted from fishing to bug catching, you could play The Legend of Zelda. How awesome is that? You can keep your Gears of War.

Among the other things you could do, was dig up fossils. This was also a fantastic thing to do. The wait between mailing off the fossil and getting it back seemed forever and the disappointment of getting a repeat fossil was disheartening... of course you were cheered up as you sold of an 3 million year old piece of priceless rock.

As much as this is all opinion, a lot of what I have said is true from even a design perspective. I am a game designer myself, and I can only hope to create such an addictive game in the future. But I digress...

Now, what is the point of all this? What is the point of this fan-boy-ish blog? Well, I don't want to tell people who don't enjoy these games that this is the best game in the world, because even I don't think it is. Instead, I am trying to communicate the feelings I had for this game.

Why would I do that? Because the point of this blog is to illustrate how bummed I am about where Nintendo has taken the franchise.

Let's look at AC: Wild World, the Nintendo DS port of the original. I almost exploded in a fit of happiness when i found out (which at the age of 21 probably isn't that good), but on a serious note, I couldn't wait to have the original in my hands on the go all the time.

What I got was nothing short of devastating. The game had instantly lost its charm. It looked and felt different. No more Zelda-esque transitions between areas was the first thing I noticed. This was a minor thing of course, but was still one that took some of the charm away. Additionally the original NES games that put so much excitement into Christmas, birthdays and item swapping in the original were gone. No reason why, just gone. The houses the player starts in were also moved and placed randomly. There was no Gyroid near the house either. Booker was moved and now at the back of the town was a huge ugly gate.

Apart from that however everything was the same but the charm injecting features had been removed and the damage was done. Another thing that got me as well was the "Wild World" focus. What was that all about? Animal Crossing: Population: Growing was an awesome title and that should have remained, but maybe with a suffix such as "The world in your palm".

What's more is that the music stayed the same which wasn't such a bad thing but by the time the Wii version was released, the music hadn't changed. Yes, City Folk, a shambles of a game. The almost pathetic insult to the franchise. The games, still gone, the music, still the same, the core gameplay mechanics still the same.

Nothing new had been added at all from the DS version, except one thing.

The game now had an emphasis on the big city. A hustling bustling place of wonder and fantasy. What I had envisioned in my head was another huge town but with a city look and feel. "Ok" I thought, "maybe this won't be so bad, just hang out there at night, that'll look awesome".

What i was actually "treated" to for £30 was nothing short of outrageous. For a game that put all the focus on a city, the city contained a cash machine, a few NPCs that said the same thing all the time, A balloon seller that randomly appears, 7 buildings, two of which are pretty much useless and a shoe shine boy. Visually, it looks really small and could never be described as a city.

Hong Kong in Shenmue, now THATS a city, this, this is a precinct. And to be honest, If they had all of this inside of a mall rather than outside and called the game "Having a Mall" then that would make more sense.

Needless to say, the Wii version also brought in one of the most flawed game design choices ever... pathing.

You see, in Animal Crossing, a lot of the visual recognition is in the floor, the grass. It looks colourful and is highly stylised, however, Nintendo sees it fit to now allow people to have it after a while.

Pathing is Nintendo's great idea (that works IN THEORY). If a player goes from their house to another house all the time, day after day, a small path appears on the ground in the grass. This creates a nice aesthetic path for others to follow. What happens in practice however is horrible looking paths, random areas of blotchy unattractive ugliness where the player occasionally strays, and the dreaded desertification.

Desertification is something that has riddled players and it is where all the grass in their towns disappears after a lot of use.

There is no option to turn it off.

Now, I'm not ranting at all, I am merely putting over a point, and that point is that Animal Crossing is a million miles away from what it used to be back in 2004. And that is sad, very sad as I have a lot of fond memories of that game.

Needless to say I will not be buying any more of the franchise and am actively looking to buy the GameCube version again and playing that on my Wii cause I'm too lazy to drag the GameCube out of the attic. At least the Wii is good for one thing eh?...