The Reasons Why 10 out of 10 Won't Do Fury Justice

Many gamers are unaware that there are 40 odd game developers in Australia. The fact is that most of them are working on developing titles for other studios overseas. They are contracted to perform development work for other people and don't often get the opportunity to develop their own products. Our home-grown industry also feels as though it is beginning a fight for its very own survival with the growth of developers in China and Asia who have been able to provide cut price development directly in competition with the Australian studios. This is why Auran is excited about their new title Fury and, after having seen it first hand on Thursday last week, so they should be. However, the problem with this game is not based around the concept or implementation of the design it will be with the process of review that the game has to undergo upon release. Fury is, for all intents and purposes, a game which is more like a sport than a game which is clearly defined by genre. When looking at playing a sport do you read a review of the sport which rates different aspects of the sport in scores out of 10 in order to decide whether you want to play it or not? You might play the sport or see other people playing it first and then make your decision based on a number of factors. It certainly does seem that scoring Fury with categories ranking graphics, sound, playability, etc. will highlight the extreme limitations of the review process. It just goes to show how far we haven't come in the last twenty five odd years of gaming journalism.

The notion of creating games which are like massive online sporting events is not new. One of the best original sporting concepts in gaming was the original Speedball. While Speedball was an excellent sport title it lacked from being invented in a time where there was widespread domestic internet, which may be why we see it being remade now. Where Unreal Tournament was clearly a game built around the notion of being a futuristic competitive sport it easily fitted in to the FPS category. Bet On Soldier also attempted to fit in to this category without much sales success, however, this game also slotted in to the FPS category. There still haven't been enough game releases of this type to clearly define a new genre. Most of those games already released have been placed squarely in the FPS mould of gameplay. Fury will not do that. While there are elements of RPG, elements of a persistent online world, elements of the MMO, elements of third person action games, and Fury has an extremely fast and competitive pace with either single player competition or team based competition as its focus, this cross mix of types does not help to define exactly what the game is. How do you then fit the game in to a genre and say that it is an RPG game where there is no single player story driven narrative. The character development system pioneers a class base system in which all characters are human. So, there are no differences between race. What players can then do is basically create their characters with as many different variations using the incarnation system. You can try out different types of character combinations without ever locking in your character to one set type. Incarnation allows you to play around with one type and then, in essence, redial in another one, save it, and try again. This is an excellent solution which will give players virtually unlimited amount of design permutations on their characters. I am sure this will keep players coming back for more.

The players will be able to trade, gossip, organise groups and just hang out at sanctuaries. Although, when I asked whether Auran would crack down on guilds devoted to dancing naked they said that they hadn't given it much thought. This is also where you will be allocated specific tasks called trials. Players will then have to use perform these trials in PvP games in order to unlock abilities and help to progress in rank. There will be four multiplayer types in the first release of the game. The multiplayer matches are: Fortress, Vortex, Elimination and Bloodbath. Bloodbath is your standard all-in kill-one-kill-all free for all deathmatch type game. Vortex is a 32 player (16 x 16) capture the flag type game. Fortress is an interesting massive team based battle where players attempt to capture and hold specific supply points in order to win the map. An adaption of the advance and secure type of gameplay which is common in FPS multiplayer now. I got to see the Elimination mode being played. It was an extremely fast team based game where one team basically has to kill (or eliminate) the other. As with all team games the team which plays best as a team has the greatest chance of survival. This will be highlighted in Fury as not all characters can tank and deal massive amounts of damage. Healers and other types are required to cast buffs for the group to enhance their ability to fight and survive.

... for the full feature then click here to go to Internode.

The Sims Movie

I can only say "Why?" so many times for this piece of news. Why dammit? Do we really need a sims movie? but more to the point do we want a Sims movie? I would say no. We don't want it. However, the sad thing is that I am sure the film makers will take themselves too seriously and actually film the movie in English, rather than the preferred Sim Language of the game.

Of course, I am sure that the movie won't build rooms with no doors or windows and allow the viewer to watch the pleasurable suffering of their digital house pet. There is nothing worse than watching some non-gamer attempt to capture a part of gaming culture.

There is some good news about this piece (if this is possible). That is Ewe Boll won't be directing the movie. This means that the film might actually be half decent ... not.

Fury Feature On Internode

Just to let you all know that I will have a feature on Internode next week looking at the new game Fury by Auran.

Featured in the photograph are some of the marketing team from Auran. On the left is Ashwin Segkar. In the middle is Andrew Edelsten. On the right is Nathan Battle.

Check out Internode on Monday for the feature titled (The Reasons Why 10 out of 10 Won't Do Fury Justice).

Halo Developers Get What's Coming

There are times when I think that game developers cop a lot of bad press. That some of the opponents of the gaming industry, unfairly are heard too often with grievances which are predominantly manufactured and hyped up to capture a five minute sound byte on the nightly news. In fact, there are not just times when this happens but I feel like this most of the time.

Then something happens and I think "how stupid are you people?" Reports that the Vista release of Halo 2 have been delayed because the developers left some partial nudity in the game is just ridiculous. How old are some of the developers? What do they gather around a monitor while they beta test their game and then giggle to themselves because they see a penis? Or, did they just want to see how well the Master Chief fitted in to his body armour?

Just when I think that the gaming industry deserves a good break and some positive press some moronic developers bring this on themselves. What are non gamers going to think about this? Especially those in the hard core right wing that are opponents of gaming in the US?

While the supposed content in question is regarding a bare bum you really have to ask "why?" It is just crap like this which will spur gamings opponents in to action. They don't need any excuse really to paint the gaming industry as one run by miscreants. Nice one Bungie.

Graphic courtesy of Kotaku.

EBGames Suck

Australian games rejoice for there were trumpets blowing to herald a new age in gaming for this wonderful country. As EBGames announce that their website will now offer Australian content for Australian gamers. Well ... who really cares?

I don't go to EB to get gaming news because the staff know jack. The worst piece of information I have been told at an EB store (in Rosebud ... you know who you are) was that they had received an email and the backward compatibility chip was going to be placed back in to the PS3 for Australia. Yeah ... sure it is. What a load of crap. Another time I was in there about 3 years ago they had "Coming Soon" boxes on the shelf for Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. I'm glad I didn't preorder that but I am sure some suckers did.

I would not go to an EB store to get information about games (not even game releases). Why would I go to the EB website to get info? They are going to tow the EB corporate line and as far as I am concerned it will be filled with misinformation. Anyway. Big deal EB.

Fallout 3 Any Day Above Ground Is A Good Day

Another new piece of artwork has graced the Fallout 3 website. We have just hit the 13 day mark until the teaser trailer is released. It is difficult not to be somewhat excited about the countdown if you are a fan of the game. Hopefully, Bethesda won't rush the game and release something like Pirates of the Caribbean. That game could have been a whole lot more than it was.

Even though it is just a teaser trailer and we probably won't get a look at any ingame footage it is still exciting. I can't wait till the trailer goes up.

Who Is The Cynical Gamer?

The Cynical Gamer is a voice set amongst many in gaming. It was created out of sheer frustration at gaming industry journalism. Whereby, unbiased and uninfluenced journalism just wasn't and still isn't occurring. The cynical gamer was then created as a reaction to this. It is not meant to provide an unbiased and uninfluenced point of view on the gaming industry, but quite the opposite. It is intentionally providing an opinionated and biased point of view. There is no secret about this. But it is a reaction to gaming journalism and, as such, a creation from it.

The frustration in the gaming industry comes from a number of points. Firstly, with magazine journalism and secondly with online gaming news. Magazine journalism has, in many ways, hit an all time low. The battle lines are clearly drawn between the two forms of information presentation with many people claiming over the last twelve months or so that the print media form is, in fact, dying. This may well be true, and it is not dying because it was presenting gamers with a fresh and unique point of view on the gaming industry. It is dying because it is homogonized and controlled by the industry it is meant to report. Advertising is the scourge of news. Advertising has completely destroyed the notion of honest journalism. The fact of the matter remains that there are not any unbiased voices in news any more. Every time you see a news item it has been presented with a particular point of view. It is just that people are relatively oblivious to this fact because they believe that news reporting is unbiased. This change has taken place over a long period of time. Without any real friction or association that the change has taken place with the mainstream audience. This too occurs with gaming. Reviews are no different.

Gaming news are pieces of information which you can get anywhere on the internet and 99 per cent of the news items are exactly the same. There are very few unique voices amongst these writers who rehash press releases and regurgitate information. You could literally train a monkey to do this and, I am sure, there are many monkeys which already do.

The cynical gamer is not about being a monkey. It is about providing you with a point of view that you know you are getting. The reader knows what the point of view is. That the sarcasm and cynicism is directed at the industry because the industry has become complacent. I do this because gamers have become complacent and accept these predominantly empty voices which fill the gaming wilderness. More than anything I do this because it is fun. The cynical gamer is an interesting character and you will always know what you are going to get.

If you don't get it then that is fine. I don't particularly care. Go get your gaming information from some homogenized news source which gives you the same old same old as everyone else. Live in the world where you believe that you are getting unbiased reporting on your nightly news and from game reviews. I would like to live in this world of denial, but unfortunately can't make it to Egypt.

Crackdown (Halo 3 Beta Delivery Device) Fails

I went to download the Halo 3 Beta via Crackdown this morning only to find that the link wasn't active. Interesting. I thought it should have been live at around 10 pm last night. I waited till this morning so that I could download it during off-peak download times.

I jump in on the interweb to check out what the problem might be and there is a special sticky at bungie.net devoted to the topic. Nice. Bungie had posted this message: "Crackdown Delay: We Know! Posted by lukems at 5/16/2007 5:22 AM PDT Frankie writes: With any luck this will be a short delay. People entering the Beta through other methods - Friends and Family, Rule of Three and so on, are unaffected."

I go to check out Major Nelson and see what he has to say about it and his blog has been replaced with this message: "We're aware that some users are having difficulty downloading the Halo 3 multiplayer beta via Crackdown. Bungie Studios is working with the Xbox Live team to resolve this as quickly as possible - stay tuned. Gamers entering the beta through other means, such as the Friends and Family remain unaffected. I am headed back to Seattle in a few hours, so I’ll be offline while I am in the air. For the most up to date information, keep an eye on Bungie.net for the latest from Frankie regarding this issue. This site is experiencing an excessive traffic amount of traffic at this time, so sorry for the temporary nature of this message. We’re working on getting back online as soon as we can." Interesting that his website has a specific message about the Halo 3 Beta Crackdown download.

Looks like Microsoft have done it again. Their theme song should be that Brittany Spears song. "Woops, we did it again." With such a short window on the beta period Microsoft are going to have some extremely unhappy customers. I wonder how many players decided to pick up Crackdown at the last minute just to find that they can't even download the Halo 3 beta.

I am not overly fussed about the delay. I will play the beta demo to have a look at the gameplay and graphics, but I wasn't too concerned about its release. I imagine there is going to be a whole lot of abuse and what not levelled at Microsoft today from gamers. Will be interesting.

Can Bad Taste Be An Excuse To Do What You Want?

Bad taste can be an art form, not necessarily when Peter Jackson does it, but it can make a point. However, you would think that for something in bad taste to be art it would have to be well thought out and have a point to it. To a degree, I would say that Jackson Pollock art is in bad taste. It has a point to it and it is, highly profitable. Pollock though is a one in a million. There are not many people who can make bad taste in to art.

However, just because you decide to capitalize on a tragedy does not make you an artist, nor the statement you decide to make, whatever that may be, to be valid. There are a lot of gaming websites now discussing the promotion of the Vtech Rampage game by its promoter. The site hosting the game now has the statement: "ATTENTION ANGRY PEOPLE: I will take this game down from newgrounds if the donation amount reaches $1000 US, i'll take it down from here if it reaches $2000 US, and i will apologize if it reaches $3000 US." This has created a torrent of hate messages and listings on gaming websites. They are outraged at the statement, which they should be, but have failed to pick up on statements which have been made by the creator of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Danny Ledonne.

Danny Ledonne is no better. While he may have been trying to make a statement with his game about what may or may not have caused the tragedy he was also involved in blatant self promotion. It is to easy to trivialize the reasons why these things occur when the US has such a love affair with guns. After the Virginia Tech shooting a local gun dealer was interviewed on the box. He claimed that if everyone at the school had a gun that the shooting wouldn't have happened. But I don't believe that any shooting is that straight forward. You are not dealing with trained military personnel you are dealing with people who have limited experience with guns. As soon as the shooting started there would have been confusion. I reckon if everyone there had a gun there would have been a greater casualty rate because no one would have known who was perpetrating the crime. These statements that more guns would solve these problems are absurd to start with.

Danny Ledonne has responded to the Vtech Rampage comments with his own critique of the game. "I just finished playing ‘VTech Rampage’ and have some mixed thoughts ... 1) There are elements of factual synthesis to the game. Creator Ryan Lambourn has a sense of humor (morbid, certainly - but not beyond the recognition of the guy who made Super Columbine Massacre RPG)". He goes on to say, "It would appear to me that Ryan has no intention of doing much other than making money and gaining immediate recognition after the Virginia Tech shooting." Which, given the statement whether tongue in cheek or not of taking the download down if he is paid enough money some credence. "For myself I wish to point out that SCMRPG was never a for-profit endeavor and thus I never posted statements like that which is on the VTR game’s homepage". It is nice to see that one of them appears to have some sense of decency. However, isn't this a bit like a serial killer telling his younger, less experienced trainee how to do things a bit better. To learn from the wisdom of the more experienced mentor. Especially, someone who has dealt with the media before. However, the mentor attempts to draw the line and take the high and mighty road from his younger apprentice, quoting himself from an earlier justification of his game, "Societies throughout history have dealt with pain, tragedy, and suffering with art in a multitude of forms and ours is no exception. There will be poems about this shooting, there will be books about it, films about it, paintings about it, and indeed I do not believe the medium of interactive electronic media should be excluded from exploring the sorrows and challenges of the human experience." This makes you think that maybe Danny was reasonably intelligent enough to understand the predicament of the pain and suffering that he must have caused by those who were personally touched by the tragedy. Because this is why these people are selfish. Their pursuit is one which is selfish. It ignores those who are truly suffering. The families of the victims are the ones who really deal with the hurt, pain and sorrow from these horrible events. Not some outsider who capitalizes on the tragedy for their own personal gain. "Now I am forced to confront my own words by asking if the VTR game does ANY of what I outlined as the “exploration” of “sorrows and challenges of the human experience.” I would like to ask us to consider not whether a game about the Virginia Tech shooting SHOULD be made but how we might go about making a game that accomplishes more than VTR does with the subject matter."

And the response from the creator of the Vtech Rampage, "the donation thing is there as a joke against all the people commanding me to take my game down. I didnt think anyone would donate money to it and so far my paypal account has proven me right (BUT I COULD USE SOME FUCKING MONEY THANKS!)" Here is a man who is making a statement. But it is not a statement about the high and mighty exploration of sorrow and pain. It is the statement that he is just using this as a means to make money.

Surely the two developers are definitely coming at this from two different points of view. But, you have to ask yourself the question. If Danny didn't get so much notoriety from his Columbine RPG then would the Vtech Rampage have ever been made. That both of these people have done this for two different reasons, but the end result has been that they both gain some form of credit for their actions. I find it interesting to note that the creator of the Vtech was doing all of this under a tag/pseudonym "PiGPEN" up until Danny publicized his name to the world. Therefore giving him personal notoriety. Danny goes on to say in a later post, "I quickly found out Internet anonymity is a thin veil and ultimately useless to someone who wants to make a statement. You, Ryan Lambourn, created "VTech Rampage." I, Danny Ledonne, created "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" We are not aliases or anonymous figures in cyberspace. We are real people with real responsibilities. The very best thing you can do, as I have done, is to OWN your work. Defend it. Fight for its right to exist and articulate the importance you believe it has. If you cannot do that, your work has no place online or elsewhere and you don't have the conviction to stand behind it. You will never be universally appreciated - nor am I - but unless you can command genuine authorship of your work, it will hold virtually no validity in the eyes of any portion of your audience."

It is unfortunate that these people have decided to use games as a means to create their form of expression whatever they think their message may be. The problem with messages is that their meanings tend to get distorted no matter how clear it is you think you have made them. These people have only been providing ammunition for those anti-gaming advocates to fire off a few shots about the predominantly responsible gaming industry. As per usual we find that it is the minority who spoils it for the majority.

The Big Lebowski Bowling - Seriously

A new game is set to be released on a very small gaming platform - mobile phones. The game, Big Lebowski Bowling, will offer gamers the chance to bowl off against some of the characters in the movie. Granted that The Big Lebowski is an excellent movie worthy of a gaming title of its own surely it is not a second rate bowling game intent on using the popularity of the name to sell the title.


Surely, the movie deserves a better game than this. An adventure game would suit "The Dude's" lifestyle rather than this pseudo sporting title. This kind of title would have been suited to a LucasArts graphic adventure. Something which could capture the subtle comedy implied by the film. Unfortunately, in many ways the graphic adventure, has been dying a slow death. Kids are more into twitch shooters and level grinding than enjoy a game of comedy.

Considering how popular comedy is as a movie genre not a whole lot is done with it in gaming. I'm pretty sure it was Robin Williams who said, that you had to have suffered a lot to write good comedy. LucasArts made a living out of writing comedic games. Sam and Max has had an excellent revival from their fan base. Stubbs the Zombie and Destroy All Humans were only considered cult favourites without having much mainstream success.

Someone has paid good money for the rights to develop the game and the movie studio has gladly taken it. Maybe movie studios are not too picky with what happens with their products. As long as someone pays good money to them for the privilege then who really cares? Look at some of the movie tie ins which have been created. They can be second rate titles just created to capitalize on a market willing to pay for any type of merchandising related to a product.

Is it just too difficult for developers to create quality comedy gaming products? or, is the twich shooter and MMO market just not suited to having a good old laugh?

International Gamers Should Boycott Xbox Live Arcade

Microsoft ... Microsoft and damned Microsoft. The news that Microsoft would actually give you something for free is completely bitter and has no sweet to it for international customers. Aegis Wing is the Xbox Live Arcade release for this Wednesday and it will be free for North American Xbox Live customers and not for the rest of the world. How's them for apples. A big suck eggs to all of Microsoft's loyal international Xbox Live Customers.

Microsoft screws their loyal customer base continuously. Australian's have to put up with the problems associated with using laggy overseas servers. Everyone else in the rest of the world has to put up with the unfairness associated with regionalization of media content so that they really have no great advantage to actually subscribing to Xbox Live in the first place.

Then there is the hypocrisy of Microsoft. They come out and publicly criticize Epic for wanting to release free content on Xbox live. They publicly air their dirty laundry with Epic over the inclusion of the extra 256mb of RAM on the Xbox 360 (which will be a blessing in disguise for Microsoft) and then they come out and release free content. With the release of the buggy Vista you really have to wonder what is going on at this company from the top down.

Microsoft are not even sure whether this game release will be available for the rest of the world at all. Xbox Live Arcade is all about more content for US citizens and less for the rest of the world.

It gives me no satisfaction to say this, but I think that International gamers should boycott Xbox Live Arcade game releases for the next month to teach Microsoft a lesson. While I don't believe the developers should suffer as a result of Microsoft's stupidity but what else can you do to make a point? It would be nice if our US gaming brothers and sisters supported us in this cause. This is the only way that we, as consumers, can have any impact on the decision making process. We have to hurt them in the hip pocket. Make sure that they suffer financially from the xenophobic regionalizing decisions which are made. I am sick of paying for a "premium" service which doesn't exist.

Post your support in the comments on this news item.

Gamearena, What is going on?

Gamearena, what are you guys doing? I was all fired up for a hard core year from you guys, but not much is happening. You provided us with the "holier than now speech" by Richie Young. Where he was critical of the gaming media and, in particular, gaming journalists. He accused the industry of being involved in a "cash for comments" type affair in general with gaming publishers. He was prepared to take the criticism from his peers as a result of this piece (and there was a lot of it). Gamearena has paid some artistic people a lot of money to revamp their website. Yet, they are just not providing the content. Why spend all of this money and then let the most important part (the content) let you down.

There is so much going on in gaming at the moment. There is so much to talk about. This year is a bumper year for releases. It is a massive year. I think it is one of the biggest years we've ever had in gaming. We have three excellent consoles which are fighting with each other for marketplace supremacy. Gaming is now viewed at political level and is a bigger industry than Hollywood with more gamers now than ever before.

But what are they giving us? No offence Justin, but your list of games was just another list of excellent games. Even though you prefaced it with, "It made me realise just how much in this egalitarian world of the web, how these kind of 'best of' lists tend to annoy more than anything."

Come on guys, you all consider yourselves to be journalists why don't you contribute something to the great body of work which is becoming gaming journalism? The Australian gaming industry is bigger than ever yet is embattled on a number of fronts. The gaming magazine industry is embattled. Internet readerships are up. There is more to write about than ever before and what are you actually contributing?

I couldn't think of a better time to be a writer in this industry.

Forza 2 Demo First Impressions

I have been really excited about the prospect of Forza 2. This game was going to be the justification for spending money on the Microsoft Wireless Steering Wheel. It was the game which had been developed from the ground up for Force Feedback on the Xbox 360. It was, of all things, meant to be a racing simulator.

After playing the demo I have to say that consoles are not platforms for racing simulators. If you play games and think that V8 Supercars or Gran Turismo or Forza are racing simulators then you are sadly mistaken. If you want to play a racing simulator then the PC is where you should be. High quality racing simulators are being created on the PC by racing nuts. Their passion for racing is reflected in the quality of the games they make. Live For Speed, GTR and rFactor are where it is at. If you haven't played them then don't even start to comment. If you find them too hard then welcome to the die hard world of racing because racing isn't easy.

Let me just say that if you are a racing fan and want to find a racing simulator on a console then you won't find one. So-called "racing sims" on consoles are watered down for the mainstream market. They are nothing more than arcade racing games with a bit more tail end action.

I am disappointed with the Microsoft Wireless Steering Wheel too now that everything is said and done. The Logitech MOMO is the best wheel on the market for force feedback (shame about the pedals). It is a wonder that Microsoft didn't have a chat to Logitech to ask them how it was done because there may be a lot of racing fans who purchase the Microsoft wheel and think that it will be comparable to the Logitech MOMO. It doesn't.

After I've said all of that. Forza 2 does play better than the original. The racing model is better, however, I have driven the game without any of the driving aids on and the powerful cars are hardly powerful enough. The track modelling is very nice. The car detail is excellent. A real shame that there was no in-car view as there was in the latest Gotham.

I seriously doubt that much of this will change when the final release of the game comes out. A real shame for consoles.

Nice One Atomic

I started reading Atomic for the hardware, now I stay for the games.

Congratulations to Atomic and all the crew there for picking up a Lizzie (or two). I believe it is well deserved. Atomic is the only magazine I subscribe to (but not the only magazine I read every month). The change of focus for the magazine has been occurring over the last couple of years. Making baby steps in to the gaming market. Even though I don't consider them to be a "games" magazines I do rate their reviews as some of the most honest that I've read.

The current issue has an excellent article on the history of RPGs, "Confessions of an RPG Developer". This is one of the best features I have ever read in a gaming mag.

Nice one guys. I genuinely hope that you can continue to keep the bastards honest.

Microsoft Won't Discuss Failure Rates - As though they don't exist

The failure rate of the Xbox 360 is a very touchy subject for Microsoft. They won't talk about it at all. With quotes like this from Peter Moore it is no wonder that more and more people are asking questions about the long term quality of the Xbox 360 as a console.

"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business."

I have been involved in retail for a long time and I understand that there is a specific reason that Microsoft take such a point of view with this and that is that they don't deal with customers on a day-to-day basis. How about he go to EB and ask some of the sales staff (who are selling their product) whether they have the same opinion? Peter's point of view is a legitimate one, and I think one that many wholesalers (especially with Notebook computers) do not take. But, if they have a product which is repeatedly failing then no matter how friendly your customer service representatives are on the phone customers, ultimately, are not particularly going to care whether it is a good experience. Having a product fail potentially multiple times is not fixed by friendly customer service. It is fixed by making a product that works the way it was intended.

Fallout 3 - News News News

Of all the game news that is around at the moment there is nothing that I get more excited about and yet, at the same time, also feel shudders of apprehension than Fallout 3. The news today that Liam Neeson is voicing one of the characters is all a bit, "Who really cares" to me. It just mean that Bethesda have spent a lot of money paying a name to be a voice. Quality voice acting doesn't necessarily come with highly paid Hollywood actors. Although it seems to be more of the norm nowadays for developers to spend too much money paying a Hollywood ego. Possibly money which could be better spent elsewhere. Also, they have a new graphic up which features Washington (which ultimately means that the game will, at least, involve the East Coast of the US this time).

It doesn't particularly worry me that Bethesda are involved in the games creation. Without Bethesda there may not have been a Fallout 3 (although I am sure that Interplay would have been pushing the license on everyone for as much money as they could get for it). Bethesda are a well established company that do make a quality product. Whether you like that product or not is another matter. It is also good to see what someone else can do with an idea. Even if they do change the game from top down RPG to a First Person experience I will be interested to see how they do it. I don't believe that Turn Based will get a showing (even though I will find this disappointing because I love turn based games - they appeal to the pen-and-paper notions which started RPGs). I just don't believe that a lot of software developers believe that it is "sellable" to the gaming public. I don't believe that this is a problem with the gaming public but more a problem with developers. They don't make turn based combat appealing. One of the unique features which really made Fallout different from the rest of the games was the descriptions of different hits and misses provided by Black Isles. Every single piece of combat was provided with interesting narrative to give the player an idea as to what was going on. This is where turn based gameplay has lost a lot of its appeal. It is about narrative as much as anything else. If a developer created a narrative of the action as interesting as Fallout was then it wouldn't matter that people were involved in turn based combat because they would be interested in what was being said.

While developers spend a lot of time creating games which have a large amount of graphical detail they often overlook the narrative detail. It is a real shame that more writer's don't get a gig in the gaming industry. This would be a better place for game developers to spend their money rather than on overpaid Hollywood actor's. Sorry Mr Neeson, but you are not selling a game to me. It would be good to see a shift in this direction for developers.

Business End Of the Gaming Year

The start of the year is never a good time for game releases. Usually, the big releases are made before Christmas so that they can capture everyone's festive giving spirit, which means you pick up a couple of big releases at the start of the year who couldn't quite hit the christmas deadline.

The next time of the year when you start to see a flood of releases occurs in the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Generally the second half of the year winds up for the big releases and this year, I think, will be one of the biggest years in gaming. We have some massive releases lined up for the second half of this year across all formats. I think, one of the big cross platform (well PC & Xbox 360 anyway) is going to be Bioshock. This game is shaping up to shake up the first person shooter genre. Then you have Enemy Territory Quake Wars and Hellgate London coming in the same genre. Quake Wars looks like it will be bigger than Battlefield 2. This game has built itself from the popularity of the free online shooter Enemy Territory: RTCW. While there is no firm spot for Unreal Tournament 3 in this years release schedule (Epic have said it will be released when it is finished and hence have changed the name of the game from 2007 to 3.) has not changed the rosey prospects of massive game releases. Of course, there is that big Direct X 10 release called Crysis which is going to shake up the industry a bit and send gamers off to the computer store to purchase upgraded equipment so they can play this game at an acceptable frame rate. Some of the videos for this game have been a bit sketchy, to say the least. Framerate is going to be the biggest issue.

I think the two biggest game releases of the year will be Spore (on the PC) and Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360 & PS3). Spore looks like it will be a highly original gaming concept which mixes a number of different styles of gameplay. PC user anticipation of the release of Spore is very high. It just goes to show that the PC gaming format can embrace new concepts in gaming style. There is plenty of room for development of unique concepts. Just look at the high quality games released by Introversion Software. Defcon, Darwinia and Uplink are not only three unique gaming concepts but also three of the best games released in the last ten years. If I hadn't have seen the teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV last month I would have been feeling a little bit "meh" about this game release. San Andreas was an excellent title, but, as far as I was concerned, Rockstar really need to push the genre in a new direction and push the genre rather than just punch out rehash of the previous title releases. After seeing the trailer and reading about the game it seems that maybe Rockstar are prepared to do this. It seems that they are completely focussed on creating an environment which is a living, breathing place where a character in the game can interact and play in any way they feel like playing. Rather than being led by the nose which is what occured with San Andreas.

There are a few unique horror games due for release as well. The horror genre is always a bit of a hit and miss affair. But we look set to see an interesting concept in Allan Wake and a comic book tie in with The Darkness.

With C&C Tiberium Wars and Supreme Commander already released there is sill a little game called World in Conflict which will keep the RTS genre on its toes.

While I have mentioned these major releases there is still a heap of big name games coming out. There's a little game on the Xbox 360 called Halo 3 which is going to, hopefully, push the 360 to its limits. PS3 is yet to have a "killer app" that has managed to challenge some of the excellent games which have already been released on the 360. There are still many more big release due out. I actually think this will be one of the biggest years in gaming for a long time. Bigger than the year that we saw Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Doom 3. There are more big games across the board and some new next generation consoles as well which are, hopefully, going to mean that gamers have a massive choice of where to spend their spare time.

Gamearena Forums Go Unchecked

What is going on at Gamearena? First of all they decide to change the look of the site. This is all quite nice. They are trying to chase that X-Games type feel, which is their prerogative. I don't mind the look of the new site at all. Of course, a lot of the front page is taken up with purchasing games through their online distribution system.

Then you have the forums. The Gamearena forums used to be an interesting place to visit and spend some time at a while ago. However, for some reason the rabble appear to have moved in and are dominating the discussion landscape.

One problem with this occurred a week or so ago when one of their new content journalists, Rianna, submitted an editorial piece on the new Ricky Ponting Cricket. Given, that Rianna, is not a gamer to start with then anyone with a brain cell should understand that it will take her some time to fit in to the gaming community and be able to produce content which is relevant. However, the comments left on the discussion area of Rianna's piece were disgusting and out of control. Too many of Gamearena's forum members were allowed to post responses which were of a sexual nature. It took 30 posts before the forum topic was locked and eventually they edited one post which was of a nature considered too graphic for some of the rabble there. 30 posts was too many. It should have been stopped immediately. Unfortunately, the inner boys club at Gamearena were too slow to react. Now, you can't find that discussion on the site at all whereas it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Ultimately, Gamearena is her workplace. This type of discussion wouldn't happen at any modern day workplace without some self respecting person saying that enough is enough.

What kind of introduction to the gaming community is this for Rianna? Unfortunately, those at Gamearena have managed to maintain one of the worst social stereotypes associated with gaming, which is that gaming is for males and not females. Whereas over 40 per cent of the gaming market is female. Why then do they let their forums go unchecked? Why are those few forum users with a high post count able to dominate the forums? The people involved in making these degrading and sexually explicit comments should be permanently banned whether they be Bigpond customers or not. Unfortunately, the repercussions for behaving in this way are hardly what you would call serious and most abusive and obnoxious is dealt with a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, anti-social behavior is encouraged in the worst form of pack mentality.

It seems that forums are just an excuse for people to remain faceless and bring everything down to the lowest possible moral denominator. Gamearena must have a pretty casual forum rules as they have had 2 forum topics in the general forum over the past week which vilifies Jews.

How about a public apology for Rianna and a statement that it will not happen again? It is the least you could do (or, would this make a legal opportunity for Gamearena to be liable for a legal challenge?) You need to come down on these forum trolls a lot harder than you have been and tidy up your forums because they are promoting the worst image of Australian gaming and not the best.

Maybe the Xtreme image is what Gamearena is encouraging. Xtreme social views might be what they consider to be the norm.