Backseat Gaming…

Backseat gaming; the act of sitting behind someone playing a game and just watching them and giving advice, is one of the things I love most about playing computer games. I love doing it and I love it when people do it to me and there’s a long, long list of games I’ve had my enjoyment of increased by the addition of a second or third party.

The oldest example that springs to mind is probably Cryo Interactive’s Dune/Bloodwych on the Amiga A500+, which my Dad used to play late at night when my Mum had gone to bed, letting me and my brother stay up late to watch him. I remember I kept a long list of all the different sietches in Dune in a notepad – such was my fascination with the sandy world on the other side of the screen. At breakfast I would get my Dad to tell me of how the adventure continued after I had finally gone to sleep and he’d fill me in as he got us ready for school like some sort of absent-minded, domesticated bard.

Duke Nukem 3D was another one I enjoyed with my brother and some friend; four of us swapping places depending on what skills were required. One for shooting, one for solving puzzles, one for something else and me, the secret finding guy. It was all very similar to how I enjoyed Serious Sam at University, my girlfriend and best friend sat on my bed behind me and laughing along as I gunned down the masses.

Unsurprisingly, Monkey Island was a big part of my backseat gaming history too. My brother would sit on the floor and watch me solve the games. Years later, in the same albeit redecorated room I’d watch him play Half-Life 2 through to Half-Life: Episode 2 even though I had finished them years before. It was part of some vague effort to recapture that earlier joy and slightly-rotted friendship.

Now, I’m doing the same thing with Mass Effect 2 and loving it. My girlfriend sits behind me as I play, loving the stories and asking questions about the fiction. I consult her on difficult quest choices and she obligingly does all the mini-games for me. It really is the best way to enjoy playing a game, in my opinion.

Also, I joined twitter – @Joethreepwood -, recorded two new gaming podcasts – one and two -, and have a nice little plan for something cool to do on bit-tech.net in the future. I also wrote a Mass Effect 2 review and did an interview with TIGA founder Jason Kingsley.

Joe, Out.

Here Comes 2010…

I had a great Christmas and New Year, which makes a change. All deadlines met, good presents, good company and trips back home to see family. I got a lot of good presents too – did I mention that? The highlights included some excellent Balblair whisky glasses, a ticket to Whisky Live in London and a mug with a picture of Guybrush Threepwood on it that Hannah had made for me.

I got lots of books too and, more than anything, it’s usually the books I’m reading which help define how the year starts for me. This year I got some good ones. The focus this year seems to have been on grumpy scientists and classic sci-fi. At the moment I’m starting with Bad Science, the first book I got and which offers an insight into medical practices, clinical trials and how diverse the placebo effect is. It’s a fascinating and very approachable book. James Randi’s books offer a similar perspective into the world of the paranormal, exposing frauds and shams for what they are.

• Bad Science by Dr. Ben Goldacre
• The Faith Healers by James Randi
• Psychic Investigator by James Randi
• The Origin of the Species: Illustrated by Charles Darwin
• In Cyberspace by Dave Barry
• Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton
• Desktop Origami by David Mitchell
• A Maze of Death by Philip K Dick
• The Game-Players of Titan by Philip K Dick
• Time for the Stars by Robert Heinlein
• The Secret People by John Wyndham

It’s a good selection, I think – lots I asked for and lots of new stuff too. I did already have a copy of Last and First Men, but it’s a first edition that’s so frail it can’t be read, so this new copy is most welcome. I also got a random assortment of comics which I’ll wade through when I get time.

I didn’t play hardly any games over Christmas, except on my iPhone (mainly Hook Champ) and pre-Christmas Eve (Modern Warfare 2), so I’m looking forward to get back into those soon. Very soon. I can hear Dragon Age calling…

Joe, Out.

Christmas Content…

Christmas is coming and that means all sorts of wonderful little features and round-ups have to be written and assembled, mainly by me. Games of the Year, Fails of the Year, Gaming Moments of the Year, Cheesecake of the Year, Year of the Year – the list goes on. So far, I think my Gaming Moment of the Year is playing World of Goo at home with my family. My Game of the Year would be Batman: Arkham Asylum. My Fail of the Year is League of Legends.

I got a lot of stick for my opinions on League of Legends when I did my review, but I think I was as fair as possible. It’s a DOTA-clone – or an avatar based RPG/RTS, if you rather. Most of the battle is automated except for the actions of the one character you control, who has a wealth of options and levels up over time, etc. It works pretty well even if it is entirely copied from a mod that you can get for free, right down to the map design.

The problems really start when you look at it as a retail product though. I wasn’t surprised when I heard from people within the publisher who said the game had been plagued with problems and was pretty much being hung out to dry. It’s a game which you can download for free, but is available to buy in the shops for £30. £30 nets you a bunch of stuff you’d have to otherwise unlock in the game – but you can’t choose what to unlock and they are all very, very lame. £30 for a free game with some alternate character skins? Please.

Functionality is lacking too. There’s only one map to play on, one game mode, one automatically set-up team-limit and matchmaking that’s at the shittiest end of the shitty-o-meter. The game takes forever to load and the online store where you supposedly buy new content isn’t working – so the developers just made all the content available to everyone and destroyed the reason to pay for the game in the process. What you’re left with is free game which you have to pay for only to find out that it’s broken and incomplete and has no value for money, supported only by the most belligerent community I’ve ever seen.

• League of Legends (review)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (review)
• Assassin’s Creed 2 (review)
• Gaming Podcast #8 (direct audio)
• In Search of a B Game (blog post)
• Vote for Game of the Year 2009 (poll)

In other news we have a rebuttal to my Is PC Gaming Dying feature coming up, which I commissioned someone else to do in the sake of fairness, I’m still at work on my mega-feature which got rejected and I also got nominated for Employee of the Year at Dennis Publishing. It was nice and is another ‘…of the Year’ to add to this post. Winner isn’t announced yet, but in the meantime I’m still getting enough congratulations to make my skin crawl. I guess I’m just not a very gracious person, though I do appreciate the nomination.

Joe, Out.

Modern Warfare 2 Reviews…

I’ve done a lot of Modern Warfare 2 Reviews. I did one for bit-tech.net (two considering I did a total re-write, actually). One for CustomPC Magazine. One for Den of Geek. I then for freelanced to do a review of Borderlands for Computer Shopper magazine, but I’d done so many reviews of MW2 that I ended up writing about MW2 instead of Borderlands by pure reflex.

I do really like Modern Warfare 2 though. The singleplayer is short and silly, as you’d expect – but it’s also very dramatic and exciting as a virtue of being almost totally scripted. The multiplayer I’ve only tinkered with at this point, but the IWNet seems to be incredibly restrictive and badly designed, yet not game-crippling once you’re in a match. That’s just my 2 cents though. I’ve heard arguments about it going both ways.

I’ve also been playing Borderlands. It’s a game with a marketing campaign based on faulty assumptions about the RPG skill trees and number of weapons, but it’s also a lot of fun to play and could be a sly contender for GOTY.

Speaking of which, we had our first joint CustomPC and Bit-tech awards yesterday. The Best Game Developer award went to Valve and was picked up by EA on their behalf. Everything else was hardware awards, so not really my area or anything I was involved in (not that I was really involved in any of it), though I did get heavily behind the drinking. As I did earlier in the week at the MW2 launch, which was a really cool event

• Modern Warfare 2 review #1 (bit-tech)
• Modern Warfare 2 review #2 (Den of Geek)
• The Void review (bit-tech)
• Free Games I Like: Home (blog)
• Free Games I Like: Small Worlds (blog)
• Dragon Age: Origins Review (bit-tech)

I also have a big feature in the works, still. It got rejected by Tim and Alex, my bosses at Custom, and rightly so. It’s a bit of non-controversy that I end up putting across controversially and boringly without meaning too. It’ll see the light of day eventually though.

Also recently I’ve been away to see Hannah’s family again, booked time away to go see my family, entered the town of Baldur’s Gate finally and bought some new coffee. This one tastes nutty.

Joe, Out.

Will This Game Work On Windows 7…

It was my Grandfather’s funeral earlier this week which, though it probably isn’t gracious to admit it, was actually a fairly enjoyable affair because it meant we got to get the whole family together. It was sad too, obviously and I read a eulogy and there were many tears, but it was great to see all my cousins and sisters and my brother. It’s also meant that I’ve been out of the work at an awkward time though and perhaps haven’t been totally focused, so I haven’t got many links to put up. The postal strikes in the UK haven’t helped either – my copy of Borderlands only just arrived, though I’ve had Torchlight and Dragon Age: Origins to keep me busy.

The first joint Bit-tech and Custom PC awards are coming up soon and, though there’s only one gaming category in the awards and I’m not really sure how it’s all being organised, it should be a fairly good night. I’ll admit to being nervous about it though, as I’m not really very good at smalltalk and schmoozing unlike most everyone else in this industry. I’d much prefer to be sat in the corner with a tall gin and tonic than having to watch my sobriety and make chit-chat. Ah well. Here’s some links.

• Gaming Podcast #6 – IWNet, Windows 7 and Yak Meat (Audio)
• Deus Ex 2: Invisible War retrospective (Blog)
• Windows 7 Games Compatibility Testing (Feature)
• How Far Has PC Gaming Come? (Feature)
• 18 Movies That Scared Us (Den of Geek Contribution)

There’s also this, though it isn’t by me. It’s a fairly good set of reasons why IWNet for Modern Warfare 2 will suck ass. And this, which is a new feature we’ve rolled out on bit-tech lately. And this; Frank Turner, who I’ve been listening to lately.

That’s about it really. I do have other stuff to say, including an update on The Baldur’s Gate Challenge, but I can’t be bothered right now. Long story/short – I finished Durlag’s Tower and it was a right bitch.

Joe, Out.

The Brutal Legend…

My review of Brutal Legend is going up on bit-tech today, with a second review going up on Den of Geek in a few days. I’ll save you the tension and just say that the game is awesome; I love it. Honestly, I found it quite hard to write the bit-tech review, but once I got going it was OK – my main problem was trying to make it clear that the main fault of the game is an array of somewhat bland gameplay tropes. The characters, plot and multiplayer make up for it though. I actually met Tim Schafer again not long ago, asking him a bunch of questions and getting him to sign my copy of Grim Fandango. He was very much like I expected; quietly uncomfortable with the reputation that’s been built around him and not totally willing to be serious for more than five minutes thanks to a very shrewd sense of wit and quietly mumbling voice.

In other news, I’ve been reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand lately and I really like that too. Unlike most books that are actually about explaining a deeper philosophy, Atlas Shrugged doesn’t stray into the usual diatribes and monologue bollocks. Instead, it just stays with a really interesting array of characters who communicate their philosophies by their interactions with the world around them. The book is well written too – something I didn’t wholly get from The Old Man and The Sea by Hemmingway, which I finished reading just before hand. I can’t believe that won a Nobel Prize for literature in all honesty;  the Christ imagery was semi-interesting and all, but it’s no compensation for a dull plot and staid writing.

Here’s a round-up of other stuff I’ve done.

• Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising review (5/10)
• Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box review (9/10)
• Remembering the Sega Dreamcast (Feature)
• Alpha Protocol preview (GamesCom Preview)
• What Makes You Quit A Multiplayer Game? (Gaming Blog)
• I’m An Evil Basterd (Baldur’s Gate Challenge)

What else? Well, on top of my classic book reading binge, my Father is preparing to launch a whisky tasting event company, I reviewed the next game from Tale of Tales; Fatale, and I’m preparing for a slew of features on the site. I also did a column in the latest issue of CustomPC Magazine that I’m quietly proud of, asking whether PC Games Journalism is mired in Nostalgia. On a somewhat ironic counterpoint, I’ve been playing Duke Nukem 3D on the iPhone an awful lot.

I also went away for a weekend with Ed from TrustedReviews and Hannah and we learned how to skin a deer, make jerky and survive for 48 hours in Wales.

That is all, Joe.

Return of DeathSpank…

Holy shit, I wrote a load of craz-ee stuff in the last few weeks and then I saw a dragon. Well, no, not really – but I did do a load of writing on the site, some of which could possibly even be described as good. Links at the bottom.

More importantly that any of that though was the fact that I finally finished watching all of Battlestar Galactica, the re-imagined series. Late, I know, but I like to sit down and watch TV shows only after they’ve already finished so that I can watch them at my own pace. I loved watching Buffy and Angel every week back in the day, but it was such a drawn out and painfully delayed process that I’d prefer to not do it again. Thus, I watched Battlestar Galactica only recently. And I can’t get ‘All Along the Watchtower’ out of my head. Alas.

I suppose I could squeeze some detailed analysis out if I wanted, but the emphasis would be on squeeze – so I’d rather not. It was good, I liked it, now I’ll move on to something else. Probably getting some serious Baldur’s Gate on; life as a Lv. 3 Half-Elf Conjurer requires dedication.

I have little else to say, so here are the links.

• Interview with Rebellion about Alien vs. Predator, finally written up after GamesCom 2009
• Is PC Gaming Dying?, which Alec Meer reckons is shameless traffic-hunting, but actually wasn’t
• Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, possibly the worst game I’ve played this year
• Ron Gilbert’s DeathSpank is unveiled, the trailer looks cool
• Gaming Podcast #3, in which I argue with Alex Watson about The Beatles

I also did a blog post on my bit-tech blog about Games to Play with Your Children, which was something I’d long been planning as a feature. Other games to add to that list include Tales of Monkey Island, Worms, Facade and House of the Dead: Overkill.

Fail.

GamesCom 2009

I just got back from Cologne, Germany, where I was attending GamesCom 2009. It was a total ‘mare, but also a dream come true if that makes any sense.

It was my first major, proper tradeshow type thing. I’ve been to big events and shows before, like UbiDays and so on, but this was the first international multi-day event that I had to organise myself. I think I did pretty well, getting one article up every day, plus news stories and building a back-catalogue of interviews and previews I can spew out in the future. I had loads of good meetings, though I’ll freely admit that I probably should have stacked some more in for Day Three (I was just worried about cramming too much in). I met loads of cool new contacts, especially the team at FutureMark who are working on the surprisingly fluid and fun-looking Shattered Horizon. I also played more games than most people have brain cells.

Most importantly though, I saw Alpha Protocol for the first time. I knew very little about the game going in, but what I saw at the presentation was all good. This game looks phenomenal, like the next Deus Ex. It’s a modern Spy RPG, with you as a lone agent trying to track down some lost missiles, but it’s got a fully complex branching story system. You can join up with different factions, turn enemies into allies, take different routes through levels and so on. Most of the main characters can be killed or saved as you choose and all the weapons etc. can be upgraded as you go. It sounds too good to be true. It probably is.

Other things I saw which looked interesting included Scribblenauts, AVP, Shattered Horizon, Mount & Blade: Warband and Majesty 2. Majesty 2 itself wasn’t a fantastic looking game or anything, but it was presented to me by a very nice Paradox PR lady called Boel who knew very little about the game, but was just so lovely that it didn’t really matter. Oh, and Borderlands looks good too.

I remember one of the first things I read of Rich Swinburne’s was a blog post about stuff it was important to take to a tradeshow, such as a mobile phone with loads of credit and a notepad and pen rather than a heavy laptop. He’s very correct, since you’re on your feet all day. I’d add to that and say that it’s crucial to have a bag of fruit in your hotel room too, as you need those vitamins and energy at the end of the day. It’s also important to get everyone in a room to introduce themselves to you aloud (not just give you business cards) if you’re using a dictaphone. Taking a good book of short stories is a good idea too, to help fill those tram rides and short breaks while you wait for the developer to turn up. Always keep some deoderant, chewing gum and something sugary to eat on hand too as it’s inevitable that you’ll run out of energy, get sweaty running from one meeting to another, or need a quick icebreaker if you’re in a room with new people.

Socks too. I forgot mine and was faced with foot-based mystery for the entire trip. Always pack extra socks.

Joe, Out.

Quote from Everything2.com

I’ve been thinking about this post on Everything2.com a lot lately. It’s one of those things that, from the moment I read it, stayed lodged in my head and would occasionally rear up and present itself. I lost track of it for ages and have spent hours and hours looking for it in the last few days, desperate to read the exact words. Turns out that I had a copy saved on my hard drive the entire time. Heh. Thought I’d put it up on here just so I wouldn’t have to do all that again.

Just remember that for every thought that you have had, you’ve lost a thousand others. Nothing that you can possibly dream of will ever be better than the least thing you manage to accomplish. There is no such thing as failure, since there is no such thing as success. There is no perfection. There is no shining light. There is no place for you. We are all essentially very much alone in a sea of other lonely souls. We cannot touch. We can only pretend to have tenuous points of contact. We can only imagine what it means to be in touch with another. There is no truth to this, unless you accept the truth that there is no truth.

What you do today will be a logical extension of what you did yesterday. Multiply this by every single person you know, then by every person they know. And so on. Continue until you realize that there is no such thing as happenstance. Every single thing that happens is caused by all that came before it. History is simply an approach to critical mass, when nothing else can happen. There just will not be enough room for anything else to happen. What then? Well, nothing, naturally. We probably wouldn’t even notice.

But don’t worry, because there is (you see this coming) nothing to worry about. If you wanted to worry about something, you should have had the foresight to change clothes yesterday (which would affect today). Everything is connected and yet people are so far apart.

-Mat_Catastrophe, user of Everything2.com

Just remember that for every thought that you have had, you’ve lost a thousand others. Nothing that you can possibly dream of will ever be better than the least thing you manage to accomplish. There is no such thing as failure, since there is no such thing as success. There is no perfection. There is no shining light. There is no place for you. We are all essentially very much alone in a sea of other lonely souls. We cannot touch. We can only pretend to have tenuous points of contact. We can only imagine what it means to be in touch with another. There is no truth to this, unless you accept the truth that there is no truth.

What you do today will be a logical extension of what you did yesterday. Multiply this by every single person you know, then by every person they know. And so on. Continue until you realize that there is no such thing as happenstance. Every single thing that happens is caused by all that came before it. History is simply an approach to critical mass, when nothing else can happen. There just will not be enough room for anything else to happen. What then? Well, nothing, naturally. We probably wouldn’t even notice.

But don’t worry, because there is (you see this coming) nothing to worry about. If you wanted to worry about something, you should have had the foresight to change clothes yesterday (which would affect today). Everything is connected and yet people are so far apart.

-Mat_Catastrophe, user of Everything2.com

In other news, the first official Custom PC and bit-tech Gaming Podcast should be going up in a few days. I hosted and edited and drafted the agenda and everything, with a little (OK, a lot) of help from CPC Editor Alex Watson. Alex is pretty cool, and cooler still for helping me out. He also, through the podcast, introduced me to Brad Sucks – the musician who provide the jingle music for the podcast. Turns out all of his music is free to listen to, so give it an ear on Spotify.

GamesCom Cologne is coming soon too. Nervous as hell about that, to be honest. I’m distracting myself with frustration about how Throne of Bhaal still hasn’t turned up. Fucking Amazon Marketplace.

Joe, Out.

The Baldur’s Gate Challenge…

I’m going to be embarking on a mission soon, which I mentioned in an earlier blog post here and then expanded on in a blog post over at bit-tech.net, entitled ‘What’s Your Greatest Gaming Achievement?‘

The challenge is simple – to play as a Wizard in Baldur’s Gate 1, to complete that game as fully as possible without cheats or walkthroughs on the hardest difficulty, complete Tales of the Sword Coast, then carry that character over into Baldur’s Gate 2 and finish that, then onwards to Throne of Bhaal. I anticipate the adventure to take more than 400 hours based on my past experience with Baldur’s Gate 2. The only problem is that I’m still waiting for the fucking expansion pack to be delivered so that I can get started.

In other news, I’m on holiday again, will soon be looking to start a bit-tech gaming podcast and have a really big bit of elephant garlic in the flat which is stinking the place up. I went to a press event at EA the other day and my route there went through a Farmers Market, so I picked some up to surprise Hannah. Then I had to carry it through all the press event and explain to Jim Vessala, who I interviewed, why I had a bulb of garlic bigger than my brain with me while we were talking. It was quite a good interview too.

I also saw Alec Meer at the event, who was there when I first got started with games journalism by doing work experience at PC Format. It was very strange and surreal to see him there and gave me a good sense of ‘Hey, I’ve actually come quite far since then’.

Joe, Out.