Penny Arcarde: On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, is simply superb! My previous dips into the delights of the Xbox Live Arcade titles have come back with, as was expected, some fairly light-weight, easy to pick up, easy to put down visual treats. The fact that this first (and I’ll put good scheckles it won’t be the last) endeavor into game-space by the Penny Arcade guys was released through this channel by no means relfects it’s quality, playability or simple addictivness! This is a title which  would hev been worth a full-on DVD release for sure but which I’m more than happy to spend some Live Points on.

What’s good. Well pretty much everything actually. The games 2D representation fits perfectly  with the PA comic-strips and the characters are well presented and realised. This comes as no surprise of course as Tycho (Jerry Holkins) and Gabe (Mike Krahulik) played a major part in the game’s genesis, with Jerry providing the story and dialogue and Mike delivering some of the most detailed art-direction ever seen, I’ll wager. The Steam-punk versions of our game loving, giraffe admiring characters are simply excellent.
Game pace and flow is well executed and I never got bored with a particular case (they’re a detective agency) as there was always something to be worked on or towards. The progression through the learning curve was good too, steep enough that you had to make an effort to get better but not so steep that you got that “I’ll never do this” feeling.

What’s not so good. If I had to find something to point a finger at, it’d be the combat process and this really is a minor niggle point. I noticed on more than one occasion I felt like I’d lost control of the interface. There was an action in progress but I couldn’t see what it was or where it was focussed. Now this is probably more down to me not concentrating enough but at the time I was trying to defend against some particularly nasty steam driven juicing machines (you know the ones I mean) and really didn’t have the opportunity to scan over every character to find out what I’d just done. I think that’s it though.. and I’m sure that when the next episode comes out I’ll simply get better at controlling things and this too will be fine.

So. PA: OTRSPD. Get it – Xbox Windows Mac, Linux – all available.

- Silesti

So I sufaced long enough to gather my thoughts about the latest from the Need For Speed franchise. Now, while I can (from a very moral perspective) understand the position they took in moving the racing away from illegal street races and high-speed pursuits with the cops, this only works if you take one of two paths.

1) produce an ‘arcade’ racing game with the qualities of the original Need For Speed series liberally applied and hope the PGR fans like it too

or

2) produce a top notch racing sim which can hold it’s head up in the company of FORZA and make sure every peice is flawless

Unfortunately what we have is a not-so-happy marriage between the two. The racing is too arcade-like without having arcade fun and not close enough to match my expectations from a sim (if I’m on a grid with a bunch of other cars, I’d like to be able to start from any other position than last please!).

I’m pleased the autosculpt features have remained and been more integrated into the game dynamic through their apparent impact on the performance of the car on the road. And the paint and graphic customisation gave me the simple pleasure of having a garage full of cars with my ‘look’ applied in a pain-free and pretty enjoyable way. But the menu structures, both the vertical main and garage and the horizontal/2D chalk-on-the ground game menu, leave a lot to be desired both in terms of navigability (for the chalk one) and speed of access for the rest.

In-game I found the controls a little clumsy. Now I’m not the most dexterous and have even been know to be a little ham-fisted but I know that I can make a car dance sideways in PGR and control a high-speed 4-wheel drift in FORZA but in this game I felt like I was somehow disconnected, especially in the Drift and Speed races. The Grip races seemed a little more manageable but maybe that down to my  more extensive on-track experience, who knows.

I also very much dislike that I can’t progress through the game without having to re-visit events to earn enough money to buy the cars I need to even compete in the later ones. I don’t like that I can’t concentrate on one type of racing but have to split myself, and my resources, over multiple disciplines. I don’t understand why there’s a differential between ‘winning’ an event and ‘dominating’ it. OK, of course I do.. but why then is winning not enough to get you through to the next round?

So what DO I like?… Well I actually like the structure of the game. I like the concept of these highly illegal street racers being brought together in a semi-controlled environment and being allowed to simply go-for-it. I like it that the old ‘crews’ have been retained and turned into teams and I did get a feeling when listening to the drivellings of the MC at the events that this was part of a larger world.

In conclusion, my measure of a game’s apeall and worth is how far I get through it before decide to finish it or give it up. Transformers reached this tipping point early and failed, PGR4 reached it early and succeeded. With NFS Pro Street I’ve reached my tipping point after about 2/3 distance and it’s REALLY annoying! I’ve made the investment in time to get this far but I’m going to have to cut my losses and move away from the table. MESSAGE TO NFS: give me back my neon, my tuners, my chases and my free roaming. FORZA is my race sim and you don’t match up!

Silesti

Over the next little while I’ll be brining you my thoughts on:-

• Need for Speed Pro-Street
• Assassins Creed
• Lego Star Wars – The Complete Saga
• Mass Effect
• Sega Rally

I’ll also be sharing my thoughts on the new addition to my Gaming world, the Nintendo Wii. So don’t go to far.. updates will be thick and fast!

Silesti

Anyhoo… I was really pleased when I found out that Xbox Live and Live Messenger were to be linked together and the the ChatPad became a ‘must-have’. The installation of the Pad itself is beyond simple, it simply snaps into place at the front of the controller with connections for the audio pass through (a new head-set is included in the box too) and the data connection points. There are two little lugs on the Pad which locate into the screw holes on the underside of the controller hand-grips providing a solid link between the two.

Once in place the ChatPad, for me at least, seems to actually add to the feel of the controller. I’ve got big hands and the additional piece gives more balance to the controller and also somewhere for my little fingers to rest. The keyboard buttons are nice to use too, they give a good positive ‘click’ when pressed and are pretty well spaced out so even sausage thumbs like me can avoid the dreaded key mash. The only critical comment I’d make is that I would have like to have seen the Enter key being larger, it’s position just under the thumb joint is perfect for the quick hit but it’s size means a more deliberate approach needs to be taken.

Overall though, it’s a really nice add-on for the controller and if you do any amount of ‘typing’ on your ’360 I’d heartily recommend it!

- Silesti

The dynamics and experience of riding a motorcycle are a unique, physically immersive, experience. One which it is VERY difficult to reproduce on screen. when you are actually riding a bike your attention and focus is well ahead of where you actually are. On track you are looking at the next corner as you are running through the current one, on the road you are scanning ahead, running a constant risk assessment for potholes, overbanding, manhole covers, branches, idiot car drivers on mobiles phones etc, etc, etc.

The most realistic on-board view of any motorbike sim is the one where you remain fairly level and the bike moves underneath you, however in real life you are only peripherally aware of the screen, dash etc as your focus is well ahead as I’ve already described. The crisply focussed and detailed rendering of the bike in PGR4 and the others (MotoGP etc), while very pretty, actually detracts from the gameplay and takes you’re eye away from where it should be. My solution would be that as the speed increases the dash becomes more transparent allowing you to focus only on the where the main action is.

The other unique element of riding a motorbike is the point and speed at which when you turn the bars left, you turn right. It’s a slow speed thing, at the lower speeds turning the bars in the direction you want to go it the right thing to do, but once you are rolling you use the rolling radius of the tyres to change direction, a gentle movement of the bars to the left causes the bike to roll onto the right hand side of the tyre and the curvature of the tyre means the bike goes right too. Try it with a disposable cup it’s the same thing, the wider rim travels further than the narrower base so it changes direction.. neat huh?!

Now I realise that translating these physics into something which is reproducable in a game engine may be a stretch, and certainly we are not going to see anything like the immersive physical experience of actually riding a bike for a good while yet so this is a largely academic discussion, BUT it is surely not beyond the realms of possibility to have the slow speed manoeuvering sorted out?! At standstill and walking pace, bikes do not pivot round some magical central point, when pulling away or moving at a slow rate they don’t get steered by flopping from knee to knee… gravity has an issue with that kind of thing!

ANYWAY! PGR4… I’m very impressed. The technical elements have been improved immensely, in particular exercises like the cone gates. In PGR3 these were the simply 2 cones and I found them a little hard to judge. In PGR4 they are well defined, and offer more of a guide to where you should be.
The graphics are superb, in particular I was running around the Nurburgring F1 track in the rain and when looking down the straight you can see the rain sweeping across the track in bands.. you’ve seen it happen in real life, there’s a gentle wind blowing, the rain is coming down and as it bounces on the road you can see the waves and curtains moving ahead of you. It’s actually quite lovely!

BBRRAAGH! Sorry got a bit poetic there… It’s fast, loud, tense, challenging and the new format for progression – running through a calendar and choosing which championships to run in – provides a much more dynamic element to the career progression. The cars are fantastic (I’m a Mercedes fan all over again) and even the bike bits are OK, if you separate yourself from real-life biking experience.

If you haven’t got it, buy it! If you have, find me on Live!

- Silesti

The best I can come up with is that TDU is a driving simulator in arcade mode so there’s no damage. There’s racing in there too, street-style in the mold of Need for Speed with all of the attendant risks of oncoming traffic etc and this is used to win money to allow you to buy and drive faster cars. The racing also progresses you through the difficulty levels which opens up more races and facilities too.

The cash element of the game is also important in buying property, the garages of which you keep your cars in which kind of makes sense.. in a PGR kind of way I suppose. But then there is another form of currency in play too.. the fashion voucher/credit which you can use to purchase clothes and accessories for your character. This is no doubt the most obvious and blatant piece of advertising I’ve seen in a game so far (I mean driving games are going to have cars in so you can forgive the manufacturers being there), this even goes as far as having an achievement for owning all of the items from a particular brand! It’s quite strange.

Now, I’ve reached Pro level, I have 1 house and 2 cars, so I’m sure there will be TDU fans out there who will say that so far I’ve only just scratched the surface of this game, and for sure I’ve not engaged in any multi-player antics (although the full time on-line play is actually quite cool!), so I’m prepared and more than happy to continue running through and expanding my real-estate empire and racking up the miles. So I’ll probably be back when I’m done!

Silesti.

A panicked call to Microsoft sorted me out of course. 4 light is nothing more that a badly connected AV cable. I felt so stupid, but it just goes to show how we get programmed by what we hear and read. My first thought was total failure. For any other piece of kit I have I’d have gone through all of the plugging/un-plugging before even getting worried.

Anyway all is good and we’ll be having fun in cars later!

Silesti.

I switched over to try the game as the Decepticons at this point and, actually enjoyed the game quite a bit more. Is this wrong? The wanton destruction, the mayhem, the carnage (OK so there’s actually no carnage so to speak, but the hint of it is there.) Am I an Evil character?
The answer is of course no. (I think) it’s just that it’s more fun to smash things and win than to be careful and win.

I may re-visit this one at some point, but for now, it’s going on the ‘I should have thought twice.. it’s a movie tie-in’ pile.

Silesti.

I recently got myself a second-hand PSP, not so much for the gaming as the media side of things. A handy bit of software from Jesterware has let me rip my DVD’s so that, my favourite MP3′s and a decent sized memory stick means that I’m good to go for train and plane journeys.

As time goes on I’m sure that I (and my alter-ego) will be back here with updates!