Marvel/Activision
A dystopic future with lots of fighting to be done
might sound familiar but this has enough complexity and
adventure-like features to make for interesting and
continued gameplay.
This is a familiar sort of genre these days. You're
racing around public streets of different cities in
very fast cars which you can choose from and add to
once you get a bit of money from winnings and collecting
tokens along the way.
The graphics are pretty good although the car control
champion on this paltform is still the Mcrae rally game.
Java Phone Games: X-Files, Robobouncer
We haven't looked at any Java Download games before and
over the coming months we'll be testing a few to see what
they're like.
This is the first adventure game I've checked out for a phone. The start
stop nature of such a game would appear to be quite suited to some
waiting environments. Stopping playing causes no real problem here. If
you're geeky enough to like these games, there's even less of a problem.
This is in Java with a window onto the part of the world you're in and a
row of actions underneath. Below that is where conversations and reactions
to silly moves go. It's quite smartly done. On some platforms
some people have created interfaces that are almost totally impenetrable
-- how do these get past the testers? Do they have testers? Anyway,
simplifying for the phone platform and trying to make the thing idiot
proof has had good effect. In this game you start out in FBI headquarters
in DC and need to get out to LA to investigate the grizzly murder of a
colleague. Scully is around somewhere as well. Get the picture?
In this one you are a robot that's a bouncer. Your job
is to stop other robots getting into the dance club you
stand in front of. No dress code here, or door bitch -- noone's
allowed in! So, you just bop everyone. It's sort of bouncer
heaven I guess. Other than bouncers, or people coming home from
bars, this one is probably more suited to kids as it is, dare
I say, fairly mindless.
Games Market Europe
Last year saw London having two video games related shows. Both
were quite large and at the opposite ends of town. This year,
for a while, it looked like London wouldn't have any show at all
partly because of the cynical attitude taken by some of the big
players.
Thankfully, London did get a show even if it was fairly small and
there wasn't anything particularly new to get excited about. This
was true last year as well but the sheer size of the thing was
exciting in itself and it was nice to see wide-eyed kids having
fun as well as being able to escape to the comparitive calm of
the developer section.
Day two of the show was the official UK launchtime for the PSP but
there was no Sony presence and nothing whatever to do with PSP
except a couple of things at a gadget stand.
Sony have a big attitude and PR problem which
their recent attempts to browbeat, bully, and sue small traders
over PSP imports showed quite well. They make the Microsoft XBox
crew look like really exceptionally nice people and Nintendo
look like latter-day saints of gaming.
There was an XBox 360 at the show which was playing some fun
looking demos and there was a huge bank of Nintendo DS's as well.
Well done, those people.
Hopefully, next year, this new show will continue to grow. In
a way, the whole problem has more than a little to do with the
main players all having their homes elsewhere. What the UK does have
is a large (though growing smaller) collection of developer
houses. The show should build on that (as ICTS once did).
The developer houses have been growing less through takeover
and by attrition. Some would argue that the attrition part
has largely been caused by publisher squeeze. Some might also
point out that in a country where the top soccer club was
recently sold to junk bond wielding Americans, and where the
TV rights for that most English of sports, cricket, was sold
to the American controlled Sky for subscriber view only, that
the future was looking mighty dim, and that the "home" show
for London will be E3 in LA. We'll see.
some of the supporters of Games Market Europe...
BBFC, Buena Vista Games, Codemasters, Contact Sales, Digital Jesters,
Electronic Arts, Game Outlet Europe - Pallet Concept, Gamesindustry.biz,
Gem Distribution, Idigicon, Just Distribution, Just Flight, Mastertronic,
MCV / Intent Media, Morpheme , NASCR, NCsoft, Phoenix Games, Pinnacle,
Pinpoint Consumer Electronics, Rising Star Games, Spectravideo, Total Disc
Repair, Ubisoft
Recently we went along to a day where N-Gage games
producers chatted about and showed off their wares.
You can read more about that here.
There are also podcasts with two of the producers having
a chat.
Mstation Games Review
Mon, 31 Oct 2005
X-Files: The Deserter
many phones, Elkware, Infospace
MTV Robobouncer
many phones, Infospace
Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Sat, 01 Oct 2005
