BIGsheep's Space

And so E3 is upon us once more. And yet with all the promises of change from the last 12-months still ringing in our ears, it still seems as bloated, and at times depressing, as it ever has been.

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It comes to something when your girlfriend’s 12-week-old god-daughter has a better focal distance than you, but that’s exactly where I stand at the moment. Fuzzily.

Given anything further away than a couple of inches it tends to distort into a blurry, yet pretty, mass of colour and basic shape. Not very useful when it comes to driving, goalkeeping or, as I found this weekend, surfing on a busy Newquay beach...

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I have a dark secret. Something that my Gamercard unfortunately cannot hide: my name is BIGsheep, and I like German board games.

It started just over a couple of months ago with Settler of Catan appearing on Xbox Live Arcade and a hearty set of recommendations from friends over at Pinata Island. The concept of the game is simple: build roads, build settlements and build tactical cards in a bid to be the first to reach ten points. This is all achieved by collecting resources based on dice rolls and then trading said resources with the other players in a bid to get just the right combination to build your intended item.

As with most good games, it is the simplicity that is the key. It takes only a couple of minutes to get to grips with but the hook is how strategic it can be when it comes down to where to build, what resources to collect and the bartering that you must do with other players. As ever, it is the latter point, the human interaction, that really makes this game and it still amazes me whenever I come across anyone online who is not willing to mic up when playing – the mutes very rarely do well in trading.

After Catan’s vanguard, Carcassonne has followed and arrived online last week. Carcassonne by comparison is a far simpler game, based around a map made from square jigsaw pieces. The pieces fit together to form fields, towns and roads, with your task being to capture as many of each as possible in order to rack up the most points. Again, this sound deceptively simple, but you have to be careful not to grow your territories beyond control and make careful decisions about what to take ownership of in case your opponents build around you to cut you off.

I’m surprised that due to Carcassonne’s comparatively basic concept it wasn’t released first to allow a natural progression into Catan, but hopefully those erring on either should give them demos a go with an open mind to see what they’re missing. For those wanting a comparison Catan is like a streamline Monopoly whilst Carcassonne is Squares, but this does an injustice to both.

As a stamp of approval, not only do I now mark these pair as two of the best offerings Xbox Live Arcade has to offer, I now have them both in proper board game form; for some old-school System Link play, if you will.

Thursday evening saw Ali and I inject some culture into our lives as we went to Bosworth Battlefield’s Heritage Centre to watch a play. Cry Blue Murder, put on by the quintet that make up Heartbreak Productions, is a tribute to Agatha Christie and set, as you’d expect, in the rip roaring 1920’s where everyone had an amusingly named butler.

To take a phrase from the period, I had a ripping good time. Initially expecting quite a dry performance I was pleasantly surprised to find it almost Blackadder-esque in its humour with a lot of double-entendre and word play that would find the Prince of Wales and Lord Percy right at home.

What makes the company special is that they tend to perform in the open air and in rather spectacular surroundings, with various castles, halls and gardens littering their tour dates. Of course, this can have its draw backs as nature doesn’t always appreciate the arts in quite the same way. Needless to say, the big coats and umbrellas that were taken along to last week’s performance came in very handy indeed.

Looks like Viva Pinata has managed to sneak its way into Forza 2. This is a picture taken by Mr Fiddler on the New York track.

Well, I’ve finally made the leap into the world of hi-def; I now have all the HDs, HDMIs and numbers ending in ‘p’ that a boy could desire thanks to the 40” Samsung M87 LCD sitting proudly in the corner of my living room.

This isn’t something I’ve entered into lightly, either, as it’s been 18 months since I started my search for a flat-panel TV and it has taken so long because I’ve been holding out for an affordable 1080p set (read this if you’re confused by that number). Sure, there have been numerous 1080i sets that have been of high quality, but despite the arguments about the noticeable (or unnoticeable) differences between interlaced and progressive, I’m of the opinion that if I had settled for 1080i then I would have forever kicked myself at the thought of missing out of “true” hi-def.

Monday was the day of truth, and since its arrival I have been nothing but smiles all week.

For the first couple of hours I could only mess around with a tangle of cables and a myriad of settings, but the time invested proved worthwhile and I now have an AV setup at home that would cause a weaker man than I to weep due to its beauty.

The true pride of the setup has to be the Xbox 360 running in full 1080p through a VGA connection. Seeing Viva Piñata running on my new toy for the very first time was really quite shocking; this is a game I’ve stared at every day now for over three years, but booting it up at home in hi-def made it seem like a completely new game. You could see every bump and every papery strand in amazing detail, and the colours were possibly even more eye-watering than I had previously thought.

True, I have had access to a HDTV at work, but that is limited to a small screen with dubious connections, plus, as a friend says, it takes seeing something that you already know to truly appreciate the jump in resolution, size and quality.

Also looking amazing is DiRT, my rally driving purchase from last week, what with its bloom lighting, the high-polygon cars and the generous filters that overlay everything. The first time I tried a race I ended up crashing at several points thanks to the highly crisp trees that lined that track proving too much of a distraction.

Cheekily I’ve also borrowed a HD-DVD player from work and all I can say is that as soon as the format war between blu-ray and HD-DVD is decided, I can’t wait to join the next generation of video discs. All I’ve had access to is King Kong but the wide shots of the jungles and cities could be enough to make anyone put down a deposit on a HDTV right there and then, they’re that good.

Of course not everything is rosy. The Wii is currently looking an absolute mess through its basic connection, but I’m hoping that the component cables currently on their way through the post should sort that out.

And what does Ali think of it, I hear you cry? Well, the first thing she played on it was unsurprisingly Tomb Raider. Not on the 360, oh no. On the PS2. Through composite connections. Not only did I despair at this choice but I can assure you that this setup does not show off the power of the PlayStation.

Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the day to do all you want to do, and so it’s handy when you’ve built up almost a month’s worth of holiday to just take a Friday off, sit back and play games.

This was a much needed day-off, as in the prior 24-hours Shadowrun, Colin McRae’s Dirt and Forza 2 had all come through the post: when was a man supposed to find time to play all of these, otherwise!?

Forza 2 was always going to be the also-ran for me amongst this collection; I’m not a big fan of racing games as I find them far too repetitive and generally, especially in full simulation games like Forza, one mistake means that the next five laps are meaningless and a procession (F1, anyone?).

As expected, I felt no love for this game. I could appreciate how well it’s been put together, the depth within the title and why others would lap it up, but nothing sparked for me. The one portion of the game, however, that I did enjoy dabbling with was creating custom paintjobs for my cars. Some images of my BIGsheep logo and accompanying sheep are included below but this thing has real depth if you have the time to sink into it.

The exception to my apathy for racing games has always been rallying. I took great pleasure from Rallisport 2 on the original Xbox and the beautiful looking Dirt didn’t let me down.

In my opinion, racing round and round a track is tedium when compared to haring along a dusty track or damp woodland with your co-driver yelling out the course up ahead. You may get to learn all the corners and perfect your apexes on a standard course but I love the rush and panic that unknown corners and bends can bring as you find yourself sliding round the British countryside at 100mph.

Not only that, but it suits my gaming driving style a lot better, too; I’m all for a bit or argy-bargy in games as you contest position and that is seemingly frowned upon in PGR/Forza. I’m not that great with my aforementioned apexes, either, so handbrake turns and drifts are much more in my realm.

Last up, from my day of gaming decadence, is Shadowrun, which has surprised me greatly. To put it simply, I love it. There’s even a small part of me who is enjoying it more than the Halo 3 beta, but the rest of me is assuring that the small part saying such things is mad and it’s only because Shadowrun’s something new that it’s enjoying it and he’ll get over it soon.

Shadowrun is basically Counterstrike but with magic and bio-tech in addition to the more traditional weapons. Resurrection, teleportation and dropping down healing trees make up some of the magic skills whilst wired reflexes and enhanced vision fall into the tech category.

For me it is the numerous combinations of characters that these extra abilities can create that makes Shadowrun such a draw. You can roll a troll character who can absorb damage and fit him with a huge mini-gun and the ability to drop down the game’s equivalent of caltrops for when you’re on the defensive, a speedy elf with a katana and teleport for some hit and run action, or a human medic who resurrects fallen comrades and patches up the wounded: so many choices.

Admittedly the actual modes and maps are limited, but when you find a team that plays like a team and are backing each other up and all jumping through walls at the same time to surprise the opponents, the gameplay feeling cannot be rivalled.

Shadowrun may have reviewed poorly in the mainstream press but I think it is greater than the sum of its parts and I really do urge people to give it a chance. New players are going to find a steep learning curve if they jump straight in online and so they should check out a series of handy tutorials that not only guide them through the basics of this cyberpunk world, but give them a sense of empowerment right from the start.

Despite Resistance: Fall of Man coming out over half-a-year ago in some areas of the world, it appears that Manchester’s Christian community have only just noticed it. It seems they are upset that Manchester Cathedral is used within the first-person-shooter and are worried that the city is already recognised for its gun violence and a videogame using such a backdrop can only compound matters.

Now, whilst glorifying guns violence may be the primary concern of the clergy, they seemed to have failed to spot, as pointed out in Sony’s riposte, that the game takes place in an alternate universe where aliens are invading the earth. Surely something that dilutes the glamour, some what.

Now whilst I see their point of view, they seem to have gone on a publicity drive that has blown everything out of proportion and stinks of knee jerk reactions, threats to take Sony court and demands for copies of Resistance to be pulled from shelves. Apart from the futility of a law suit, I can’t see how this was missed for several months if it was such a big deal; we’re not talking a hot-coffee mod, this game has been in full public view.

I admit that setting a shooter in a cathedral, especially a known cathedral, may not completely smack of thinking of others (imagine the outcry if it had been a mosque) and so whilst more thought should go into future design it’s interesting to see this is a topic that has caused the Prime Minister to his tuppence worth.

Yet again, following on from Las Vegas’ major’s criticism of Rainbow Six last year, I find it odd how organisations don’t mind violent or controversial movies to be set in and amongst their property. This includes every Las Vegas gangster film, Con Air and ones such as the Da Vinci Code in regards to the church; yet games are once again held up as a blot on their landscape. Whilst I reiterate the church has a point, it seems that there are certain double standards depending on which medium your fiction is produced.

Damn it. Another week has gone by and I haven’t put anything substantial (if at all) up on this blog. What used to be my favourite source of whittering is now a site falling into disrepair.

Initially I blamed the VP forums for distracting me away, now I point the finger at Facebook. Whoever introduced me to this site is evil: Mr F, I’m blaming you.

Some of you may remember this post from back in February. It spoke happily of how Ali and I had found a new house just down the road in Nuneaton and of how we were hopefully looking at moving quite quickly to our new patch to be in by Easter. Since then, however, things have gone steadily downhill and the sale of our own house has fallen through, and in turn our proposed purchase.

It’s really demoralising, not least because it’s not down to any of our own doing; it’s all collapsed due to the incompetence of our supposed buyer who failed to even apply for a mortgage until six weeks into this farce and now due to one reason or another has pulled out altogether.

And so the process has to start again. The bunnies will be dry-cleaned, the house dusted to within an inch of its life and all those boxes that I pre-emptively packed some two months ago look like being redistributed to make things look as welcoming as possible. Somehow, though, I can’t quite see it being so frantic this time around as I don’t really have the heart for it at the moment.

As I said right at the beginning “if it is meant to be, it’ll all go smoothly”, and obviously this particular one wasn’t.

Last weekend, prior to the disappointment Liverpool felt this week, Ali and I were up in the city visiting some friends. We got shown around the centre itself taking in the docks, the Tate and the rest of the local culture, but by far and away the best aspect of the weekend was Go Ape.

Go Ape is basically a playground for big kids, suspended from the trees. Consisting of various rope bridges, Tarzan swings and zip lines it forms a route through the canopy and is surprisingly good fun.

I say “surprisingly” because I’m not a great fan of heights; put me on top of a tower with a handrail I’m fine, but put me up a ladder with a light breeze and I’m not so sure anymore. That being said, they break you in very gently and do their best to reassure you with a very lengthy and helpful safety talk about how your safety harnesses “love the trees”.

It may not sound like much, traversing a few dangling ropes suspended from the branches, but it was really good funwww as first I got over my fear and then I embraced the challenge. Half of the obstacles were something straight out of Gladiators with wobbly beams, stirrup walkways, and giant cargo nets.

Well worth the trip and definitely something that will wake you up early on a Sunday morning.

Good luck tonight, Liverpool.

The football scene at Rare is robust one; there’s the Tuesday evening kick-around, the Wednesday night league and during the summer a match post-work on Thursdays here at our very own Manor Park, which itself even sounds like a football stadium. To keep this level of football up we have a large pool of players to chose from and just as many understanding other-halves that allow their men to go out and kick pig’s bladders around several nights a week.

We’re not the only development house in MGS with such commitment, though. When our Head of IT went down to Lionhead, Guilford, a while back, he found an equally thriving sporting scene and it seemed only logical to pit their teams against ours in Rare’s first inter-dev match in many a year.

We felt like an authentic away-day team driving down to Guildford yesterday afternoon; despite there only being just over a dozen of us, we were all sat upon a massive 60 seat coach, like the ones you see driving teams to cup finals, talking team tactics and deciding which of my defenders I was going to shout at most during the match. It was just as well we were given nice, plush transport, too, as it was a three-hour trip down into the centre of the M25 and when we finally emerged off the coach we couldn’t wait to get started.

It turns out Lionhead are used to this sort of thing as they already had a predetermined ‘A’ and ‘B’ 7-a-side team ready to go. We, who usually pick the teams based on who is available on a certain night, opted for a slightly different approach as our manager-for-the-day split us up into “offensive” and “defensive” sevens, which made our American team members feel right at home. Due to my goalkeeping habits, I obviously went on the defensive team, which suited me just fine as I always feel more confident knowing that there are some defensively minded people willing to stop back and help cover the danger.

And so it began. Badly.

In our first game we conceded within five-minutes as a break on their left saw them power into the box and unleash a shot. I managed to get hands to it but gallingly it wasn’t enough as it simply diverted the effort onto the post and eventually dribbled over the line on the rebound. They were well organised and we were sure we were playing their A-team; every time they pushed forward they looked dangerous and it was only due to the combined efforts of the defence and I that we managed to keep their best efforts out.

Their shape meant we mainly had to play on the counter, and although chances were few we managed to scramble a goal two-thirds of the way through the game to force the equaliser. I would love to provide a colourful and scintillating description of it but my view was horribly obscured. I’m assured it was scrappy, though, as our Russian striker at close-range managed to work the ball through outstretched limbs into the corner of the net.

With a draw under our belt, we moved on to our second game of the evening against their other team, who had just dispatched our offensive team (possibly in more ways than one) 3-0. Buoyed by the confidence gained by earning a draw, yet slightly apprehensive about the skills of this new team, we took the turf with Lionhead’s blog producers capturing us on camera for posterity and possibly a video diary.

And so it began. Splendidly.

This time it was Rare that scored early on, with a lovely flowing set of dissecting passes resulting in forced error and an own-goal. Not quite the finish the move deserved, but at times you’ll take anything.

We doubled our lead shortly after as a corner was swung in and our Russian front-man was again there to convert the chance. This time, though, it was with a majestic, salmon-like leap into the air to then head the ball past the despairing dive of their keeper and into the bottom right-hand corner. A quality finish, no matter what level you play at.

After that it was end-to-end stuff with our defence again severely tested, but in this match we asked some questions of the opposition’s too. Toward the end a defensive error let them run on through to grab a consolation goal, but apart from that minor blip our defence stood firm and we walked away with a solid 2-1 victory. Regrettably, the same cannot be said for Rare’s other outfit as they again went down to a 3-0 defeat: it just goes to show what a solid defence can do for a team.

After the final whistle both teams retreated to the bar and began to mingle with their on-pitch opponents, Lionhead obviously the happier having won two of the four games and only losing one of the others. You can’t fault their hospitality, though, because by the time we reached the bar a tab had been started and beer was being thrust into our hands. Very gracious winners.

With the return leg somewhere soon in the offing, some trading of players between teams may have to be done to balance things out, but this could be the start of something interesting. There is already talk of friendlies with Liverpool’s Bizarre Creations and other more local studios, not to mention a nationwide developer’s tournament that someone’s caught wind of. Before long we might even be able to get the bus branded with a Rare FC logo, but I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves; I’ll just settle for a new goalkeeping jersey.

EDIT: there are now some photos of the day. Look to the left-hand column for the gallery.

This week saw the conclusion to an interesting little contest over on Pinata Island, where forum goers were invited to enter the Create-a-Rare-Developer-as-a-Pinata Competition. The rules were simple: pick someone from the game’s credits and create that person as if they were a piñata in the game. With no limits on the mediums that could be used and with the added incentive of mystery prizes from us here at Rare, we always knew the results would be interesting.

Those that were posted were indeed varied. From Lego to clay, from pencil to actual piñata, the range was impressive and you could tell a lot of thought, time and effort had gone into many of them. We even had a complete homage to the way the piñata’s information is described in-game, which was particular close to my heart.

Of course with every contest there has to be a winner and in this case it was Lazria’s Goldipop which proved popular with the dev team. Mainly, I think, because we can all imagine Andy as a floundering fish, but the thought he inspired someone else to name a goldfish after him is priceless.

For a rundown of all the final results, check this link.

I am now surrounded by a box full of VP and Rare branded swag that will be distributed shortly to all the various winners. Luckily most of it is reasonably flat and can easily by jiffy bagged but I’m not so sure about the mugs, hopefully they’ll survive the transatlantic post.

It was a headline that filled me with dread: GAME acquires Gamestation.

A cry rang out from my mouth at the horror; my favourite shop on the highstreet (and bastion for retreat when Ali goes shopping) is being enveloped by one of my least favourite shops on the highstreet.

I have always resented buying games from GAME. Even before Christmas when they were the only place in town to have the Wii accessories I wanted, I felt dirty handing over my cash to them.

With some shops I have an irrational disdain for them, Starbucks, Costa et al, for example, just because they are always there. With GAME, however, I think they are soulless places for people who don’t know better, who get ripped off on prices and who just bend over and take it when offered a ridiculously scant trade-in price. They are the ultimate, streamlined, capitalist vision of my preferred hobby, not only that but their all-caps name grinds my gears too.

This is not to say that Gamestation is not after my money too, let’s not pretend they too aren’t driven by the mighty pound, but they go about it in such a nice manner by comparison. Their shops have character, a great range of second-hand/retro games, good trade-in value and, more importantly, their staff appear to know what they are on about. This could be just my own personal impression, but the difference between the two businesses is as night is to day.

The one glimmer of hope I cling to is that they will, as the press release says, keep the two brands separate. For those of you who remember Electronic Boutique, you may also remember that GAME assimilated them pretty sharpish after an acquisition, but hopefully the demographic who use Gamestation (as it is now) as opposed to GAME will persuade the two identities to remain.

The odd thing is, though, that as much as I hate GAME’s retail face in towns, I cannot fault their online service. Upon their website, prices can almost be considered competitive and their delivery service is exceptional; if ever I want something on the day of release this is the place I will go. Quite the opposite to Gamestation’s own web presence, in fact, and quite the Jekyll & Hyde. Who knows, they may compliment each other after all.

Ali used to mock me because I liked “different” things: I like my hair blue, I’m an unashamed geek and I profess a love for Scotch Eggs. This mocking hasn’t stopped over the years, and I doubt it ever will, but I think that she now realises that this liking for “different” things is merely because I want to try something out of the ordinary and, maybe in the process, expand my mind.

When it comes to my leisure time this has manifested itself in a few ways; back-in-the-day I would turn my nose up at MMOs and RPGs, not even giving them the time of day, but since Pirate Steve tempted me into WoW all those months ago I haven’t look back and I am now more open to these and other genres that have previously escaped me. This month alone I’ve tried Battlestations: Midway and the console version of Command & Conquer, two areas of gaming that, whilst I’m not the biggest fan, I thought were worth a dabble in if nothing else. More importantly, I would have never tried Munchkin if I hadn’t decided to expand my scope a little and that has been a roaring success.

“Different” is probably the number one reason why I was looking forward to the Wii last year. Whilst everyone else crammed more of everything into their next-gen consoles, Nintendo took a slightly a different approach, a turn towards a different way of experiencing games, and one that has paid dividends. Admitedly, after the first wave of titles the Wii has been slightly lacking in depth but it’s still an experience I enjoy every time the sleek, white box is turned on.

All in all, this is my long winded introduction to me saying: I like the look of Eye of Judgement because it’s a bit different. It sees a card game where the Eye Toy can pick up the identity of every card and render on top of it an animated representation of it. In this case it sees monsters battling against each other and instead of a straight out “you’ve got more X than I do so you win”, the avatars will duke it out on screen for you.

Up until now I’ve considered the PlayStation 3 just uninspiring with lukewarm games and an unimpressive online experience. What Dr Mark Richards’s and his team have seemingly created something isn’t revolutionary in terms of technology, but they have utilised it in a way that could augment existing games and genres to give them an extra twist: why just play a card game when you can have a card game with real monsters? After all, augmented reality games are supposed to be the next big step in gaming.

Whilst motion sensing controls are great, realism and immersion are key; what is more immersive than you actually being in your game world and the game’s entities being rendered around you? After all this is only a stretch on what Eye of Judgement is doing, but you replace the cards and the game-world takes the place of the card’s monsters. I doubt the PS3 will embrace this but even if the platform is responsible for the mainstream’s first tentative steps into this area it will be welcome… and different.

For my this use of the next-gen Eye Toy isn’t something that is going to make me nip down to Woolworths and relieve them of one of their PlayStations, but it is good to see that Sony have their quirky side. What would make me do that is a Munchkin version. Oh, the mere thought of it...

I think I've rambled enough for a Friday afternoon. BIGsheep, out.