Retrospective No. 32 NHL 08

Looking out of my window at this grey and drizzly land, the frozen piste of Sochi seems like a distant and magical fantasy realm. Having been a week late for Valentine’s Day I am now a week late for the winter Olympics and some of the most insane sports known to man. Aside from the residents of my small isle who seem to be obsessed with extreme sweeping; the big event that the big players all want is ice hockey gold. Russia’s beaten quarter finalists were last seen on a bus to Siberia (not true) and Canada popped the corks on bottles of maple syrup to toast its victorious men and women. However, being from this ice free island I know very little about it as a sport but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the official game of the NHL. It is slightly awkward entering this review entirely clueless as to the rules and cultures of the sport because my judgements and opinions reflect those of the true novice who might not be the target audience of this kind of game. Still, you all had to start somewhere so why not with NHL 08 the first ice hockey game I ever played?

From the perspective of any other sports game it plays very well. The presentation is amazing and captures the match day broadcast feeling more effectively than any of its EA sports stable mates. Its pace matches up with the hectic nature of actual hockey to produce an exhilarating fun game. It is whilst controlling this fast paced action that it sees the greatest innovation in the implementation of trick stick function controlled by using the right analogue stick. This opens a whole new style of play moving away from the button based game play and makes loads of sense for a hockey video game. It is a feature that’s woven in brilliantly allowing players to use skill to navigate past opponents and opening up 360 degree control over the player character. Coasting with the left stick and playing with right just feels intuitive and natural. Pushes on the right stick manipulate the puck while a firmer press plays the puck in the direction chosen. It is simple enough that even an amateur like me could use it but crucially has the complexity that actually makes it feel like your inputs mattered. My wild flailing on the stick could be appropriately punished by a good opponent while they danced around me not letting me get close.

Despite the aforementioned flailing the only time I felt out of control was when it came to goal scoring which could be seen as a fairly major flaw for a sports game. I’d lose count of the times I’d launch a shot goalwards to see the goal tender claim it or a wall of players blocking. This was mainly because I wasn’t very good but when playing against fellow amateurs the random number god appeared to be offering benevolence to some players and not others. Even extensive time spent on tutorials and attempting to research actual ice hockey players didn’t bring positive progress towards working out exactly how you go about scoring a goal in a consistent fashion.

The greatest shame about this, aside from lessening the feeling of control that you have over your players’ actions is it robs players of one of the most entertaining features included in the game. When scoring a goal the goal horn plays and helps indicate that something has happened in a game that can be sometimes hard to follow. The customisable settings on this function have some of the best legitimate trolling potential seen in any game ever. You can pick any sound saved to your hard drive and select an increased or decreased volume whether the home or away team scores leading to one team’s goals being deafening whilst the other side are greeted with silence. Coupled with the hilarious fighting mini-game that can seemingly be triggered after any confrontation and you have a game that is a troll’s paradise. Fortunately I found this all hilarious but the more sensitive amongst you might be launching controllers across the room at some of this wind-up potential.

The fact that I could have such a good time playing this whilst using a style most commonly seen on ‘Twitch Plays Pokemon’ (casual pop-culture reference) is a testament to the quality of the game. Very few sports games comfortably balance both simulation and arcade game play providing a good experience for players of all abilities from Eskimos to those who have never seen snow. NHL 08 does this with aplomb largely in part to the innovative stick based controls which suit this kind of game down to the ground. Having played this game you will wonder why anyone ever thought button based controls were a good idea. They are so intuitive I’m sure there are other stick/broom based sports games that could be made using this template; curling for example (I admit it I’m an addict too). The yearly nature of EA Sports games means that it is very hard to pick up a version that can really be considered the next step forward and a good entry point for beginners. This is it and it forms the backbone for all modern NHL games so is a great place to start your winter sports adventure.

Retrospective No. 31 Fallout 3

On February 15^th I realised that I missed Valentine’s Day. Thankfully for my girlfriend this only happened on my blog. Normally this wouldn’t bother me as I’ve not tried to theme any of my posts around current festivities. However, having covered Leisure Suit Larry and his lust for ladies, as well as Sam and Max and their lust for violence in previous weeks I felt kind of disappointed that I’d missed a great opportunity to get into the Valentine’s spirit. So like grovelling men the world over this is my late Valentine’s treat for you all.

The tale I’m going to recount is a classic girl next door story. Essentially, a girl grows up as neighbour to child of indeterminate gender. The children go to school together and become fast friends. While at school she stands up for the child to defend them from bullies. Unfortunately for our two young sweethearts the course of true love does not run smooth. Their fathers dislike each other and bicker over the future direction of the community. Eventually her father chases the other father out of the community in a murder attempt to consolidate his power. In response the child lacking reasoning skills and charisma but with a decent small guns stat leaves a few rounds from a 9mm in his head and flees into the nuclear wasteland never to be seen again. This is a story that is told time and time again throughout human history but Fallout 3 is brave enough to ask, what if they returned?

The optional mission Trouble on the Homefront is the result. Using Fallout 3’s odd mix of FPS and RPG game play you are given multiple choices on how to complete the quest. Whether you opt for all guns blazing or try to act the diplomat and bring about peace is entirely up to you. In addition the vast open world and loose scripting that Bethesda specialise in means that actions during the prologue will affect outcomes during this mission and interactions with NPCs. The vastness of this world and the free roaming nature means you may never even happen upon this quest if you don’t explore the correct areas.

This would be a shame if you missed it because the designers hit upon a great idea showing the chaos that your flight to the outside world has wrought upon a previously stable, insular community. Vault 101 has decayed since you were last here with the residents splitting into two warring camps with only you to look to for help in resolving this crisis. Close attention is paid to continuity with characters referencing your previous actions and your behaviour governing the warmth of their interactions with you and whether you even have to option to broker peace at all. If you do have the choice some of the scripting encourages certain outcomes and strange AI behaviour can result in some of the peaceful goals being harder to achieve. The game in general can also be prone to encouraging violent actions as charismatic orators have a significantly harder time facing the horrors of the wastes. These hidden restrictions are also felt in the limited number of results of completing this quest regardless of the many different play styles. In fact the only way to keep Vault 101 permanently accessible is to fail the quest and doom every last remnant of your childhood.

After all of the bloodshed (or not if you invested your skills differently) your reward for this task is to be cast back into the wasteland by your childhood best friend or to be locked out of the Vault and isolated from the community altogether. Playing this heroically has got to be one of the most unsatisfying tasks I’ve ever undertaken in gaming especially when you find it was simply to get in a cheap homage to the original Fallout’s ending. However, upon reflection I realised that this wasn’t the reason why it bothered me so much. I was annoyed because I actually kind of felt a sense of betrayal my childhood best friend had let me down despite the mercy I showed to her father (having not chosen the violent path as identified above) and the heroic deeds I had performed for the community. I was expecting affection and I was faced with rejection. Truly this is one of the great love stories of our time. Happy Valentine’s Day!

So the important lesson Fallout 3 can teach us all? Don’t care, don’t get involved and keep it superficial. If you lightly brush over this game and avoid all the bonus quests you can complete this game in no time at all and have a great time. The rpg-fps blend is a little strange but it works and there is a great adventure to play here. If however, you choose to invest your time and energy and really commit to your created character that feels unique to you you’ll most probably end up an emotional wreck like I was.

Retrospective No. 30 NBA Street Vol. 2

The latest EA scandal relating to their efforts to resurrect the Dungeon Keeper franchise and accidentally giving rise to a shambling corpse of a game had me thinking about the great games that EA have made in the past. As much as it pains me to admit in light of their milking of every cynical money grabbing trick in the book EA have released some truly wonderful titles and I’m sure all of you have enjoyed one of these at some point in your lives. Even if they constantly fail to understand what it is that we want in their quest to monetise at all cost it doesn’t mean that some of their classic games weren’t actually great fun.

The most fun focused of all were possibly the sports games made by the EA Sports BIG studio. Responsible for the more extreme sports franchises they opted for a highly stylised collection of game with a focus on entertainment and a sense of humour that rival companies at the time just couldn’t match. This retrospective will focus specifically on NBA Street Vol. 2 coolest of the cool, lacking the sales figures of the SSX series but being all the funkier for its slightly more niche appeal. However, consider this a homage to all of these games (except FIFA street which was never good.)

If you are looking for fun look no further I honestly believe there has never been another arcade sports game this good. NBA Street plays as a ‘street’ basketball game (did you expect anything else) with a three on three set up and a rather loose interpretation of the rules. This allows for kick passing, ignoring traditional scoring in favour of a one or two point system and a total disregard for the law of gravity. In place of these stuffy rules and boring realistic physics this game runs almost entirely on an impossibly funky, old school cool.

Low gravity and a free flowing, creative attitude is one thing but this would mean nothing if the game was rubbish. Luckily, for all of us it is brilliant. Matches take the form of three on three arcade games paced at a frantic and exciting speed but lacking the finesse of a full basketball sim. On a basic level the game controls like a basic basketball game but where it really stands out is in the addition of turbo buttons. The trigger buttons can be pressed while performing an action and this allows your player to perform a more skilful move or a special shot. Successfully performing more ostentatious, show-stopping moves fills a momentum meter and filling this completely lets you use a super-powered Gamebreaker shot giving you bonus points and deducting from your opponents score.

It is quite hard to communicate through text just how cool this all is and how much fun you can have playing this game. For players who are put off by the depth of modern sports games this is a refreshing easy to play introduction that handles well but importantly still feels like a skill based experience.  The more experienced gamer will marvel at an entirely different spin on a sports title, pulling off alley-oops, bouncing passes off bamboozled opponents faces and tying them in knots. It strikes a good balance between playability and challenge that makes pulling off the awesome moves possible but rewarding. Too often arcade games just dissolve into button mashing madness but this game manages to steer clear of this and create something every level of player can enjoy.

This game is the epitome of cool and stands out as a reminder of a time when EA did things well as fun game play and a unique concept combined to producing a memorable engaging experience. However, the fact that the studio that produced so many classic games no longer exists and that all of these titles have been retired is a damning indictment of what EA does wrong.  There has always been room in the market for fun arcade sports games even if they don’t have the same scale of profitability as the mainstream iterations. NBA Street and by extension all of the EA Sports Big games were proof that gamers and sports fans are not realism obsessed fanatics but will respond to quirky, outrageous fun. EA even acknowledged the strength of appeal these brands hold with their cynical attempt to cash-in on SSX with their reboot of the series. Sadly, their interpretation of the unique spirit only succeeded in producing a dull, grey, lifeless, generic game that is perhaps a warning that NBA Street should remain dead. It’s not all doom and gloom as I still have the original to enjoy and I will never stop enjoying this flamboyant, trash-talking, mad dunking street game.

Retrospective No. 29 Sam and Max Save the World

Dear readers I appear to have made a breakthrough in discovering what the reading public really want. Last week’s retrospective on Leisure Suit Larry garnered readership figures and attention beyond my wildest dreams. I think I’ve figured out the key to high ratings. I’ve worked out how to titillate my audience and what really gets you all excited. To all you newbies out there I think I understand why you have swarmed to my corner of the internet. What makes Larry’s tale stand out from the hordes of competing games out there? How does this game overwhelm the senses and make such a strong connection with its audience? Well obviously because it’s a plot driven adventure game.

While thinking how best to exploit my guaranteed ratings hit I thought why not cash-in on possibly the most respected modern name in this genre, Telltale Games? They have been pushing the boundaries of the interactive story and adventure games blurring the lines between the two and producing award winning, affecting titles that really tug at people’s emotions. They have elevated game production and scripting to really examine real human interactions. I’ve not chosen any of those games; of course I’m choosing the one about the talking dog and rabbit private detectives trying to save the world.

It just sounds so much more fun doesn’t it? Sam is a dog in a suit with a cool hat and a gun (no shoes though). Max is a small vaguely rabbity shaped thing with no clothes and a bigger cool gun (don’t ask where he hides it because it’s none of your damned business.) No zombies (well some zombies), no tears (surprisingly the odd tear) and a million times the laughter. A million times the imagination as well. No relaxing on tired old tropes here you’ll save child stars from hypnosis, star in your own sitcom, infiltrate the toy mafia, assassinate a dead president, play a video game and drive to the moon. All of this excitement takes place against the backdrop of the strangest New York I’ve ever seen where the subways lead straight to hell and where characters can’t move for all the portals to inter-dimensional realms lying about the place.

All of which sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it? This is a game however, no matter how strongly Telltale tries to push their narrative achievements, so how does it play? Game play is controlled using the analogue stick for movement and x/a for interaction. Areas available for interaction get highlighted (though some are in hard to find places) and items collected from these areas are placed into the menu. Once in the menu they can be used elsewhere or combined as the puzzle suits. All of this is fairly basic. Where Telltale starts to push the boundaries is in conversation with NPCs. Interacting brings up a conversation menu like is standard in modern RPGS with a variety of options, pretty much all of them hilarious. This is where you will want to take your time and explore everything that Sam and Max can say as it is an absolute hoot hearing some of their wisecracks or weird non-sequiturs. In addition some of the conversation based puzzles are quite well hidden and you never quite know when something you are saying might affect how a later puzzle plays out.

As strongly as I try to fight my urges there are a few criticisms to be made, especially when compared to classic entries in the genre. Firstly, puzzles are somewhat limited in most episodes of the first  game and the difficulty level is extremely kind. This is a critique that could be made of the Telltale titles in general as a greater focus is placed on creating a story everyone can access rather than designing tough puzzling situations. A positive is the total lack of moon logic that I have complained about in the past but the lack of challenge does make each episode feel a little light. The episodic nature and the slightly surreal setting of each game also mean that episode to episode progression is oddly schizophrenic, especially if you have dashed through an episode. This is a problem that the later series manage to iron out but for season one the overarching story is probably the weakest element. It doesn’t stop it from being hugely entertaining but you might have difficultly recalling what tied the episodes together.

I think my weeks of talking about sin rubbed off on me. This is me at my most selfish and greedy hoping that a boost in sales for the previous Sam and Max series will lead to Season Four being created. So go buy it. Please. I know you all want to even if you think it’s wrong. I’ve seen the boost in reader figures that adventure games bring and I know what you want. The game available on any conceivable platform you could want to purchase it on and most importantly it’s brilliant. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll gasp and you’ll hang on every twist trying to work out just what will happen next. The best part is once you’ve played Save the World there are two more seasons each building on the work done by the predecessors to create some of the best adventure titles around.

Bonus: If you’re still not convinced be assured that the game is guaranteed 100% Mafia-free.

Update delay

No update today. Will try and fit one in tomorrow.