Now we have twitter!

Just as a tiny temporary post - feel free to follow me on twitter!
http://twitter.com/TriCirXSq
Currently i'm giving snippits of the E3 lowdown! E3 roundup post to follow very soon!

Competitive gaming and game rage

Anyone in the world knows, gamer or not, winning feels good. It feels very good. It feels ESPECIALLY good when you're either;
a) Competing for a prize of some kind in a tournament
b) Defeating an arrogant or annoying little microphone warrior
or c) Beating a close, dear friend then laughing hysterically at their failure and holding it over their head for the purposes of banter.

Yes we all like winning and to try and get my latest egotistical boost came in the form of entering a Mortal Kombat 9 tournament for PS3, ran by Gamestation. I had a run in with this contest once before, a month or so ago when the demo for the smash hit fighter was released to the PSN and Live Arcade alike. Gamestation in cahoots with Warner Brothers ran the competition to which i was all too eager to join. As it was only the demo version, only 4 characters were playable; Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Mileena (HAHAHAHAHA). But yeah it was Scorpions all round with 1 Sub-Zero player. Anyways, I got to the semi finals and was absolutely annihilated by the overall contest winner, so i left disheartened. Yesterday however I attended another Gamestation tournament with hopes of redeeming my earlier defeat and much to my joy, I did! I took home the title of tournament winner and the proverbial gold - the gold being a cardboard Mortal Kombat sign and a copy of Thor on PS3.

So what is it that draws us all to the competitive arena? Well as I stated before; we crave victory. With victory comes fame, admiration, or even better; prizes. There's certainly no shortage of any kind for competitive gamers, both serious and casual. America is where the big gaming for money happens, with the likes of MLG (Major League Gaming) putting cash prizes up in the thousands. Over here in Europe we have the EGL (European Gaming League) and if you win, they make sure your name is known. Justin Wong, a name all to well known to competitive gamers all over the world. He's the one who dominates most every fighting game tournament there is, most recently Mortal Kombat - taking a hefty 10 grand winnings. Not bad for a days work..But for most of us - all competitive gaming comes to is a kill to death ratio on CoD, or being able to beat your friends to a bloody pulp without taking so much as a scratch. It's for bragging rights.

 Or is that very close minded of me? Of course it is. There are those who play, brace yourselves for this one.. FOR FUN. Good god, the concept is shocking isn't it? Yes there are those who play Call Of Duty who will be sniped by a filthy, camping little swine and will simply shrug, maybe even complimenting them on their good shot. The world would be a better, nicer place if every game was full of these kinds of players, but generally they don't tend to be very good. Not that that is a crime, I applaud people like that. I think we all take gaming, myself especially, far too seriously. At the end of the day - it's fake numbers brought about by fake bullets or punches. We realistically don't benefit or suffer from them, yet taking a bullet or finishing blow will force some players into a rage nonetheless - usually ending in them insulting whoever it was who beat them. I talk from personal experience of course, from both sides of the story..

Let's look at it from a different perspective. Competitive gaming inevitably took off largely due to the introduction of consolised online play - no longer did you have to spend a fat wedge on a computer powerful enough to run all of NASA just to play online games. Now most every household has some kind of gaming system with online capabilities. Game developers of course recognised the importance of competition, why else would they focus so heavily on online play? Not only that but they cater to the needs of the competitor by including number of deaths, number of kills, ratios, accuracy.. Every aspect of play can now be seen and compared. Modern Warfare 2, the critically acclaimed FPS, had an astonishing 8 million online players in it's first week of release - all blowing each other to pieces, so obviously there's no lack of demand for it.

That's not to say that the non-competitive among us aren't accounted for. God knows any potential untapped resource will be realised by developers far and wide in an attempt to squeeze the last penny from their wallets. Just look at the Wii, that I can think of there are no seriously competitive games on the console save for Super Smash Brothers which admittedly can get exceptionally heated. Save for SSB it has the likes of Red Steel and a few others like it, but they don't support online play. Luckily we live in an age where every type of player is catered for.

So that's my little bit on competitive gaming. To finish off - here's a priceless video of competitive gaming and it's potential effects;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8pR1rZZHEs&feature=related

Just blame it on the game



I recently got into an argument with someone on a message board over their argument that video games inspire violence in teenagers and those younger than 18. I was quick to jump to the defense of the entertainment medium and after the argument was settled in my favour, i got to thinking about when i took psychology for A-Level in college, I based one of my assignments on just this topic. So, I thought I'd dig it out for all you lovely people and change it slightly to be more video game than psychology based. Hey, a post is a post, recycled or not! It is estimated over 80 percent of video games on the market contain some form of violence. In a world of escalating knife and gun crime in teenagers, where violence in video games is so common, is there some correlation between them?

Grand Theft Auto is a hugely popular video game created by Rockstar that features extreme violence and crime, and the player is rewarded for anarchic behavior, as any gamer worth their salt will know. Let's face it, we've all gone on a mad rampage now and again; stealing cars, beating prostitutes, gunning down the random old lady who happens to get in your way.. However, this game does not stand alone within Rockstar. Perhaps the most violent game in all of Rockstar's catalogue is, Manhunt. Though not as popular or well known as Grand Theft Auto, in the UK at least it still pricks up a considerable amount of ears when mentioned as a hefty amount of people have played it in their youth, myself included. For the record, it was brilliant. The player controls an individual who is being told to 'execute' gang members, civilians and police officers in the most violent way possible, for the enjoyment of someone else. The player is presented with an array of weapons with everything from crowbars and guns to simplistic weapons such as screwdrivers and plastic bags.

The game has three 'levels' of executions, and these get bloodier as the levels of execution progress. Level 1 execution are the least bloody of the three, Level 2 executions are considerably more gory, and level 3 kills are over-the-top fatalities. The game encourages players to execute enemies as brutally as possible, and awards players who do so with higher scores at the end of the level.


Who wouldn't want to whack this thing?

Now, I'mma lay some science on you! In the world of psychology, this is what is known as 'symbolic modelling' as players are witnessing violent behaviour being rewarded so are more likely to imitate and learn their own behaviour from the symbolic model character. Saying 'symbollic modelling to anyone remotely involved with psychology, myself included, will throw up the name Bandura, Ross and Ross, as they conducted an experiment into this in 1963. I could describe the whole study; the aim, methodology, ethical implications etc, but that isn't why you're here so if you're really interested in that then you can go research it! Basically, they showed kids a video of a man hitting a clown doll and getting rewarded, and another group of kids a video of the same guy hitting the same doll but getting punished. Guess what the result was? That's right - the kids who saw the first video were more likely to act violently towards the doll. However, although this may SEEM to support the video game violence behaviour; people have to bare in mind it is not small, highly impressionable children who are playing these games. Also people who play these games tend to be logical, perfectly mentally healthy individuals who can distinguish between fantasy and reality, implying if they see a character being rewarded for violent behaviour in a game they know this would not be the case in real life.

There have been many court cases in which Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt have arisen as possible causes for the murder but as of yet, no direct link has been found. As of September 2007, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best-selling video game in the United States with 8.6 million copies sold. (This could very well be horribly wrong as we now live in 2011 and I originally wrote this 2-3 years ago but hey-ho) With that many copies sold, if it really did induce violence, would there not be more cases?

That's not to say there aren't reported cases of video game 'inspired' bonuses. Every so often this controversy of violence in video games appears in the media usually due to an incident, such as this one; In March 2005, 2 police officers and 1 civilian were shot dead by 18 year old Devin Moore who was a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto video game. The game rewards the player for shooting or beating passersby and police officers, destroying and stealing cars and causing any mayhem they can. After his capture, Moore is reported to have told police, "Life is like a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime." This tragic incident caused outrage among the public, leading the brother of one of the men shot dead to file a law suit against Rockstar, the company responsible for the creation of Grand Theft Auto. In the court case, there was no link found between real life and fantasy game violence.

This is not the only case of its kind either, and the same game is involved. In Oakland, Calif., detectives said the game provoked a street gang accused of robbing and killing six people. In Newport, Tenn., two teenagers told police the game was an influence when they shot at passing cars with a .22 calibre rifle, killing one person. In each case, no direct link between the game and the violence was found. A perhaps more famous case Is that of Stefan Pakeerah. There was outcry for the game 'Manhunt' to be banned shortly after its UK release, and after the murder of Stefan Pakeerah by his best friend who was said to be 'obsessed' with the game pleaded guilty. Following the media exposure, the game was removed from store shelves such as GAME but this only increased demand for the game online. Manhunt went back on sale across the country after it was found, yet again, there was no link between the murder and the game violence.

So, there we have it. The evidence stacking against the argument that games inspire violence, as opposed to for it, is overwhelming. I have tried not to be in any way biased towards this side of the argument, looking at it from a psychology perspective but i suppose there will always be some bias. Personally, I believe that video game violence does affect real life violence, but only to a very limited extent and it only affects a limited number of individuals. I believe that those already of a certain mindset will be affected by the shown violence and may replicate it but for the vast majority, it will have no affect as they realise it is fictional and purely for fun. As for me, and I'm sure millions of other players around the world, I'm going to keep playing so long as they keep getting made, and enjoying every gore filled moment, knowing it is just a game. I mean, what beats tearing a guys leg off then beating him to death with it (God i love you Mortal Kombat).

The age of online?

I, along with millions of other Playstation 3 owners, have been left stranded as of late by Sony and their recent fiasco involving the infamous hack and tremendously dire handling of the situation. There are already thousands of blogs, articles and videos detailing the incident so rather than tread old ground - I'll take a different approach and look at the wider picture of online gaming.

It's no secret that the vast majority of the gaming market, and indeed the biggest and most popular titles base themselves heavily on the multi player experience. In the past this would be the likes of Goldeneye, multi player not stretching further than 4 people sat around 1 television but now split screen is dead and forgotten by developers. The real multi player experience now is online. Facing off against an infinite number of different opponents, each with different playing styles, set ups, tendencies, ways of life and backgrounds from every walk and race of life. What could be better than meeting a randomer from another country on a game you like and making friends? Yeah right - it usually just ends up a slur match, but if anything that's more fun.

This seems like, and is, a fantastic leap forward in terms of connectability and technology, ensuring no man plays alone. This is why, as highlighted earlier, so many games incorporate some aspect of online play. Whether it be Demon's Souls' scarce co-op, the world known Call Of Duty multi player or even games which have NO single player mode and function only online such as MAG, game developers rarely if ever leave out online.

However, is this a good thing? Getting back to the PSN outage, millions of gamers, myself included, have been left without online. This means some people can not even play the games they may love such as MAG, as online is a requirement. For the most part however, it simply means a more lack-luster gaming experience. I'm all for a good campaign or story mode, but games like Mortal Kombat and even after 1 or 2 playthroughs of Crysis 2, I'm left hungering for online. This is an echo of the era we live in, and after this shambles I have mixed feelings over it. It used to be a game could be enjoyed for hundreds of hours while playing solo but now the massive amount of money, effort and time put into games multi player or online experiences tends to mean a short coming for the single player experience, which i think is a real shame. Maybe after this disaster for Sony, developers will start following suit of Batman Arkham City.

Arkham City, follow up to the massively successful and brilliant Batman: Arkham Asylum, recently revealed that there would be no online features in the highly anticipated game. The developers of the game spoke out their views and reinforced their belief that this would be for the best, both in interests of the game and for fans. They thought that including an online mode in what is primarily a single player game, would lead to the detriment of the single player experience, something they definitely did not want. Why provide what would in all actuality, be a sub-par or generic online experience which would cause the solo play to suffer, when they can provide no online but instead offer a fantastic single player game?

I'd love to hear other people's views on this. Should more developers follow suit and make single player only games? What are your views on the network outage and online gaming?

Long overdue return

It's been just over a month since my last post, ( i think?!) but i'm just letting you all know that I'm still alive! I've had a steady yet heavy influx of uni work but finished off my last piece of coursework today so I'm back to blog again.

In my time off i've been doing quite a lot gaming wise, expect quite a few blogs in the next week or two including:

competiton gaming
fallout new vegas
trophy hunting
call of duty: WaW
most anticipated part 2

And whatever else i can think of in the time from now > then. Stay tuned!

Most anticipated

Well I failed my goal of getting a blog out every day.. Oh well! Looks like I'm on a write as I please basis now!

Today I'll be giving a list of my most anticipated releases on ps3 this year, as well as listing games that recently were released that I want! Unfortunately i have to pick and choose my games as my funds for gaming are extremely limited so the list is pretty short for now but in no particular order, here we go:

Dynasty Warriors 7 - 1 April
I haven't really been following Koei much as of late. Way back early last year i picked up their latest Dynasty Warriors title, it being the only current gen Dynasty game, and found it simply appalling - i just couldn't place why. The character designs had changed, even character weapons. The combat felt broken and disjointed and i expected more all round. Those of us (like me) who had gotten used to playing certain characters such Xiahou Dun (pictured) with his monstrous sword, now played completely different with different weapons. I was a big fan of Dynasty Warriors' last gen instalments, but was an even bigger fan of the similar Samurai Warriors, so until Koei finally releases (if they ever do) news about a current gen Samurai Warriors, this is the game I'm keeping my eyes on.

Fist Of The North Star

However, Koei have also recently released a game by the name of Fist Of The North Star. Now depending on your interests, this will either excite you incredibly (and if that's the case you've already played it) or mean nothing. Fist of The North Star is a very popular anime/manga based around hero Kenshiro and, as standard, tremendous fighting. This game uses the same fighting and level mechanics as the Dynasty / Samurai Warriors series and as a fan of anime i hugely anticipate this game. After downloading the demo from the Playstation Network i can say that I want this game even more as it lives up to any expectations I have and seems a massive improvement on the style of Dynasty Warriors 6.

Mortal Kombat 9 - 19 April
A decent Mortal Kombat game has been long anticipated on PS3 so it's only right it takes it's rightful place in this list. Mortal Kombat has been giving gamers gratuitous amounts of over the top gore and violence in the bloodiest of ways, and most of them have been good, if not great. Recent adaptations have, however, been lack luster. Luckily it seems this time round that Mortal Kombat will be pulling out all the stops to make sure it's return is triumphant and fantastically violent, just what the fans want. And speaking of being famed for violence, this time round there is a new addition to the Mortal Kombat roster, and it is only that of the God killer himself - Kratos. Reception of this has been varied but admittedly he does fit in well. I won't say much more on this game but instead let you see for yourself why I am looking forward to it so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KUUlRYnlc

Dead Island
I hold special interest for this one and shall be keeping a VERY close eye on it in the coming months. I'm a huge fan of zombies in all forms of entertainment but especially gaming. My last run in with them was in the form of Dead Rising 2 which though fun, was a little too disappointing. it got boring fast and zombies were more of a joke than a serious threat. However, this game seems to be taking a very different route. Not only that, but the trailer is one of the most emotional, beautiful and enticing trailers I have ever seen - and that's not just for games, for anything. That in itself is something the developers should be very proud of. Again I'll let you see for yourself exactly what has me so excited. Brace yourself, this is one of the greatest trailers you will ever witness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg&oref=http://www.youtube.com/results%3Fsearch_query%3Ddead%2Bisland%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

Twisted Metal

Twisted Metal - A name that brings to surface hundreds of memories of one of my favourite games of all time. Back on the original Playstation me, my brother and our friends put countless hours in blowing up famous world monuments. There's just something gratifying about riding up the Eiffel Tower playing a crazed murderer who's head is on fire, driving a tripped out ice cream van, or terrorising other drivers as a war survivor, donning the skull of a dead friend, firing missiles and machine gun bullets from a modded motorbike. At this years E3 convention, Twisted Metal PS3 was the last reveal at the Sony Conference. The cinematic trailer (no, bugger off and go look for it yourself) drove fans wild and as if that wasn't enough, a replica Sweet Tooth ice cream van drove on stage. This was enough to make me squeal with excitement as i watched the whole thing through my laptop screen. The last run in I had with Twisted Metal was in the form of Twisted Metal: Black on Playstation 2 which was also a fantastic game which i would recommend. This time round we see Sweet Tooth taking a front seat (pardon the pun) role in a battle against Darkside with one of the most exciting prospects.. Online multiplayer! Whether the reviews end up positive or negative this is still a title i will not be missing out on.

Hollywood - the game!

Video games are now an undeniable form of entertainment. Where as in the past it may well have been shunned or disregarded as a serious industry in copmparrison to film and music, this is now not the case. Not only that but the video game industry is now one of the most popular forms of entertainment markets of them all. Video games, thanks to the general casualisation of the industry with the introduction of things like the Wii and Doctor Kawashima's Brain Training are reaching out to audience's that had never been considered before. No longer are games associated to the pale faced, spot ridden shut in teenager, but now all people of all ages from all walks of life.

Considering this, it's no surprise that the money grabbers over in Hollywood want to stick their money grabbing hands into the proverbial pie, usually with disasterous results. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone In The Dark, Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, the list of video to film conversions goes on. The one thing they have in common? They have, for the most part, all been awful. Not one game to film conversion has reveived above 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most averaging below 30%.

Many a time have I cringed at the simple idea of some of my favourite games being transitioned to the big screen - most notably Resident Evil, which have without a doubt - been terrible. The first film's relation to the game series was tenuous at best - pretty much the only relation was the fact that there were zombies, the drop of the name Umbrella, T-Virus and..er.. That's about it. Stand alone, this could have been acceptable. However.. They just couldn't help themselves, they felt the need to attempt to reach out to the gaming audience, an exciting concept. They decided to take one of the most menacing, terrifying and relentless enemies from the entire series, the tenacious Nemesis.



The green skinned, purpe tentacled, leather clad behemoth terrified gamers everywhere when he refused to stay down after taking heavy amounts of machine gun fire and shotgun blasts - only to get back up again and attempt to smash the Racoon Police Department Doors. He was made only more horrifying when seemingly out of nowhere he appeared atop building, equipped with rocket launcher. He was an unrelenting force of destruction and death, the true definition of Nemesis.

Now i do applaud Hollywood for their attempts to recreate Nemesis aesthetically, they actually achieved that pretty well - with the exception of a blue eye instead of a deathly white one. Oh, and with the addition of a gattling gun as well as rocket launcher. But that's where my praise ends. Jill Valentine as well as Carlos Oliviera and Nicolai. Carlos portrayed as a short, spiky haired badass, Jill Valentine as a sarky, jealous break the rules police officer. Nicolai, the game's main antagonist, is in the film portayed as a cheeky ladies man who gets killed almost instantly by a cerberus as he is too occupied with flirting with Jill. Perhaps the most disgraceful aspect of this film however, is the ending. Nemsis, face to face in a battle to the death with Alice (literally hand to hand punching, no tentacle, body ripping action) which is quite frankly embarassing - get's beaten. When ordered to kill Alice Nemsis refuses and instead, in an ode to his humanity, chooses to save Alice for the greater good. Pathetic.
I could go on and on about how dire they are, the third film involviong the original Resident Evil master monster.. Tyrant. The hulking, seemingly clawed demon was reduced to a mere joke, portrayed as a pretentious TALKING doctor. I've yet to witness the latest film, but as it includes Albert Wesker - i can only imagine they've somehow ruined him.

So why don't the films work? A simple 2 answers - real life has limitations. In a game, anything is possible, monsters and demons can look however the creator wants them to. In real life, in film, people can only do what the human body and the technology available to us allows us to do, which simply does not work as well, the amount of options instantly becomes limited. Secondly - the audience. Film makers are after as much money as possible, so they generalise the film, plot and characters. Giving a character like Nemsis a human nature and 'good' side, appeals to more people than a freak intent on killing. More appeal means more sales - after all they have no reputation to live to, what do they care if it's an awful film and nothing like the game? People will still go and see it just in case it IS like the game, we live in hope right? The only film i can say i remotely liked linking to games was Silent Hill, because it stuck closely to the first game, but still suffered some changes for the public. But, for every 1 good game film there are dozens of terrible ones. Just look at Street Fighter...