Xbox 360
So where were we then? Ah yes, the pub.
And your ramblings are from: Brian Ashford, Michael Black, Phil Harris, Tom Hillman, Murray Kendall, TC Larsen and Josh Wilson.
And if you wanted to know what happened in Part 1 then click here.
Fallujah
Phil Harris: Moving on Six Days in Fallujah.
Tom Hillman: I think it should have been made.
PH: Justify.
TH: I'm all for freedom of press and I think as long as they'd done it tastefully.
Brian Ashford: Can you do that sort of thing tastefully?
TH: There's a story to be told and it depends what side you want to go from. I'd hope they wouldn't go from the Team America and more from the local populace or the actual experiences of the troops on the ground. In the end something terrible did happen there. If it raises awareness and brings to light what happened then why not, as long as it's done in a tasteful way.
Josh Wilson: So it's an example of how not to do it. You can see what they were trying to do.
That airport scene
TH: It's the same as Call of Duty and the airport scene.
BA: What a waste of time that was.
Murray (Muz) Kendall: I just played that this afternoon.
TH: It was rubbish but at least they were pushing the boundaries.
JW: Yeah showing weakness whilst trying to be controversial for a reason.
MK: It was actually humorous. They were desperately trying to be controversial.
TH: It would have been good if you didn't kill and the other guys had turned round and said, "Why aren't you killing anyone?"
BA: There should have been some consequences for what you choose to do. Just saying, "Right, you're going in here there's civilians to shoot", but it's your decision whether to do it or not would be better.
MK: It's like walking through jelly for the whole level as well. You can't run, it's actually pretty boring.
BA: Yes it was. It should have been a cut scene. They could have done it in a ten second cut scene and that would have been it over and done with. Better than asking you the question. "This is the controversial bit, do you want to skip it? Are you sure?"
MK: There's a certain point that those of a sensitive disposition may want to avoid.
PH: In the end there's one really eloquent point. You're not actually doing this for real. Who's run over people in a car game or shot people and animals in other games?
BA: That's the thing about this whole airport scene. It's fine, it's a videogame but don't make me walk through a cutscene where nothing happens. If it had been a game where you have to shoot the civilians for some reason and something happened then great and this could have developed into something interesting and actually worth talking about.
The controversy game
JW: Would it be worth talking about if they hadn't labelled it as a controversial bit. They probably shouldn't have done that and just slotted it in there.
BA: But then you've got the question did they go out there and say there's a controversial bit here to lessen the press or did they just want more press.
MK: Of course they did. Call me an old cynic.
PH: It's like Manchester Cathedral in Resistance. They knew why they were putting it in the game and it wasn't just because it was a nice level design; which it was.
MK: If you're afraid of offending people just don't put these things in the first place.
JW: You could have shot people in the legs to try and ensure their survival, something a special agent might actually do, that would be better.
PH: Anyway onwards and upwards. Michael.
Michael Black: I think that PSN has had a great year. Every other week there's been something good to play.
JW: I've just signed myself up for that.
MB: I've got at least 50 games on my PS3 before I put a disc in.
PH: My game of the year has to have been Flower.
BA: I want to know your worst game of the year.
MK: Mine was definitely Adam Venture.
PH: I remember posting that review up and meeting Muz for drinks. In the bit where Muz talks about the sound effects there was an extra paragraph he cut.
MK: On land it was one of their developers walking on gravel.
PH: The bit you cut was when they were walking through water and you went, "splish, splash, splosh."
MK: It was awful.
Nice beaver
PH: Fairytale Fights has to be one of the worst games. Where does the giant beaver come from? Which fairytale is that from because I don't know. If I'm insulting the sensibilities of any Native Americans or Canadians who say well the beaver tale is the most famous in our culture then I do apologise but I just don't know it.
MK: Alice and her wonderful beaver.
BA: I'd certainly read that version.
MK: The other thing I liked about that review, not playing the game, was the millions of woodchoppers. When they were creatively stuck they obviously thought of woodchoppers.
PH: And first time I saw it I thought that's clever as I'm playing Little Red Riding Hood they've included something from her story but no, I was wrong. Just more and more woodcutters; like a plague.
MK: Weren't they meant to be the good guys anyway.
PH: It's meant to be a dark take on things, the whole story is based around the cauldron of porridge owned by the three bears being stolen.
BA: Because that was an interesting part of that story.
Lost paths
MK: I downloaded a game we recommended and now think, "I can never get that time back". That was The Path. I appreciate it was trying to move the genre forward and try something new but I couldn't stand it.
PH: Graeme loved it and it's a shame he isn't here to defend it.
MK: I suppose that's right. I just found it so dire.
TH: It sounded fantastic though because didn't you play different Alice's
BA: It had good ideas. There were a whole lot of Red Riding Hood's you could choose and each vary the story slightly so you were supposed to play the same game nine times.
MK: There's no combat and there's not even a button you can click to do anything you just have to stand in the right area for something to happen. What they're trying to do is get away from the concept that you press this button to activate things.
TH: It's at a whole other level then.
MK: The more I say it's probably me that failed. I'm probably just too set in my ways for new gaming.
BA: The Path really did divide people. Some loved it some hated it. The fact that you can just take the path to grandma's house and it's game over; story done. Or you can wander off the path...
MK: That's one thing the game tells you to do. Stay off the path, wander off and explore but I think the most exciting thing that happened for me was a set of mushrooms, nothing happened.
Game issues
PH: My friend had a copy of Silent Hill: The Room and said he was having problems getting out of the room at the start. We told him, "You have to wait, the portal will appear". He called me after leaving it for over an hour one day and said, "It's still not appearing": he may have used more colourful language than that. When I borrowed his copy I realised it was defective and the portal never opened.
BA: That's especially good as it was called The Room. A special room simulator.
TH: Or a special edition.
BA: There's probably some obscure competition in Japan where if you get the game that has no evil you win something amazing but it got shipped to the other side of the world where your mate was sitting there shouting, "Just do something!"
TH: My most disappointing game of the year would have to be Heavy Weapon. It was awful. It was what I played ten years ago. It's a side scrolling shooter available on XBLA or PSN.
BA: So was it a good adaption of a bad game?
TH: It wasn't even really an adaption just more of the same from ten years ago. It wasn't particularly special, the graphics weren't that great at all.
MK: So was it just simulating the original.
BA: No I think it was a sequel.
TH: I don't know.
BA: See it was so rubbish that we don't know.
MK: How about something passable, apart from Fritz Chess which was obviously a hoot you enjoyed.
TH: It would have to be Two Worlds.
G-Police
PH: Three of our reviewers mentioned the generic "old games" now available on the PSN and XBLA as one of their top ten choices and I was pleased to see that. In fact Brian and me did the G-Police Bargain/Bin Special so I downloaded that and actually completed it.
BA: That's only taken thirteen years.
PH: It's a great game. The thing that made us love it so much is when your wing man has an "engine failure" and dies they actually programmed in the fact he's shot down. We only discovered that because we were lost in the wrong dome but hats off to the developers who had put it in there.
BA: It was something you weren't meant to know in the game for a few more missions but when they did the big reveal we were like, "Duh! We know. We saw the whole thing!"
PH: "While we were lost. Wait... what do you mean you're taking our flight badge away"
TC Larsen: That's pretty neat.
JW: So it was a plot item for later that you can find out through seeing it.
BA: If you're in the right place.
PH: One of the coders obviously put it in anyway which was beautiful and is why Psygnosis were one of the best developers around at that time. They did everything of a quality of 75% or up. I can't think of a bad Psygnosis game, hell they made Wipeout. Now they're Studio Liverpool.
BA: None of the original teams who developed those PSOne titles are there though. They've moved on. Perhaps to the 3D Realms Sanitorium.
Conversion
PH: Murray you're always talking about the problems of converting console games to PC and the fact that some of the control systems, especially button bashing, are more akin to the consoles, which is a valid point.
MK: You're absolutely right. I always have problems with poor lazy conversions either way.
BA: It happens in the menu system too where you have to use buttons to move up and down and then select rather than smooth mouse controls.
MK: Here's the beauty of how bad Adam Venture was. It was designed and built for the PC but you can't use the mouse you need the arrow keys.
TH: That shouldn't be a problem anymore with games being designed on consoles and sent to a PC. Technically the PC should always have the better controls and the console will be worse.
MK: It will always have the graphics advantage and it will always have the controls advantage. Having said that my friend, who's a hardcore PC gamer, has got a PS3 and I'll be getting myself a PS3. If you're a hardcore gamer you want everything don't you.
BA: I abandoned PC gaming as console gaming was so much easier. You needed to stick the disc in the machine and off you went.
MK: If you get yourself a proper graphics card then everything goes so smoothly. You need to update though.
JW: But isn't that just the rip off of the PC world?
MK: If you've got the money though who cares.
TH: The joy of having a console is knowing that throughout its lifespan you'll be able to throw in a game and play it.
MK: Yes but as a PC gamer I have an inherent distrust of any piece of kit where I cannot get inside to fiddle about.
BA: I couldn't be bothered learning to do that.
MK: You don't have to. The kit now, your consoles, are so good you don't have to bother about that now unlike a few years back
JW: Yes, there was a big contrast then.
BA: But now the difference between the console and the PC is negligible.
MK: Apart from resolution. I'm running a machine that can control three monitors which is great for driving games.
BA: That would be nice but the amount of games I could get for the PC compared to what I could get for my various consoles wouldn't justify it.
MK: Which is fair enough but SquareGo is dedicated to both PC and console games. I love it I wouldn't have it any way.
BA: Have you played Dead Space on the PC as it's said to have a bad control system. In fact the game only really works if you plug in an XBox controller and use that.
MK: It's become necessary to get one for my PC.
BA: Just don't play Dead Space on the PC if you've only got a mouse and controller.