Sometimes you wonder if people writing on this subject (games!)
are fantastically ignorant or whether they're in the pay of evil
forces.
"Pretend so-and-so doesn't exist and there's a Bermuda bank
account for ya son" or something like that. The first console to
spring to mind in connection with this is Nintendo's GC. The
facts are that it has been profitable for years and there are more
of them out there than Xbox's. To hear some people, you would think
they were on their last legs and had one user out there.
Another is the N-Gage. It is not in the same postion as the GC
but the company keep plugging away at it and their games are coming
along well, yet there are snide asides in some mags that should know
better, and even the spread of rumours that Nokia are about to give up.
Why is this? Do they want there to be one console and one
handheld? Mstation doesn't. We like choice, and that comes from
diversity obviously.
So, anyway, we'll be looking at quite a few N-Gage titles as they
come up and whatever else interesting we can find.
N-Gage: Shadowkey, Vir21 Studios
This is only on N-Gage and is the first adventure game
I've seen for the platform. It supports one or two players
as well.
To start with, as is usual with this sort of game, you
construct your character from a range of different sorts
like Knight, Mage, etc and you get to choose some sub-qualities
as well. After that you're let loose in a 3D world where,
as you close an object that you can do something with, you
get a message on the screen. Enemies such as giant rats
don't have a message but it's fairly obvious that the use
of one of your weapons is necessary.
Players of these sorts of games won't find any difficulty in figuring
out what's going on or what to do and I wouldn't think first-timers
would have much of a problem either. One thing is that, on the big
consoles, this sort of gaming is being bypassed by the big publishers
who can only see the genre du jour. The way to keep this sort of thing
alive is to support it.
(kerfoham)
N-Gage: Colin Mcrae Rally, Codemasters
Not too bad at all. The graphics are nicely judged, with
the level of detail about right for a small screen. The
physics are impressive as you crash into trees and banks
and maybe suffer a rollover or two. There isn't quite
enough grunt in the CPU or memory to show after accident
damage but you do get nice touches like a flashing taillight
or two.
Starting off in a time trial soon reveals you only get to play
in one place, but opting for a single rally soon changes the
scenery. Graduating from that, you can miss planes, trains,
and busses by going for a full championship and seeing a wide
variety of scenery from all around the world.
You can create driver profiles that include what nationality
and skill you are along with which car from a limited number
of car choices. Once you're going along in a rally, you
might damage the car and, like a real rally, you get to make
choices of what you can repair within the time limit.
(furd)
Mario, Metal Gear Solid, Blinx 2
Nintendo DS: Super Mario 64 DS, Nintendo
The conventional wisdom is that Nintendo didn't have time
to produce a game to thoroughly make use of the DS's
capabilities and so gussied up ole Mario. The conventional
wisdom is also that they did a tip-top job.
PS2: Metal Gear Solid 3, Konami
Franchise extender adds all kinds of detail that could be
self-parody but could also be wonderful.
Xbox: Blinx 2, Artoon
Hardcore gamers find this time lord update annoyingly
bereft of something to munch on. It could be quite OK for
kids though.
Mstation Games Review
Fri, 28 Jan 2005
