IGN re-reviews Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I ragged on IGN because they had an astonishingly bad review of Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009. It looks like this viewpoint was not only shared by fans of the game, but by the wider IGN editorial staff as well.

The link to the original review has been replaced by an apology from the IGN staff and a new review has been posted.

Although the new review only gave a score of 7.9 - the review itself is much fairer (at least they are no longer comparing it to Fifa...). The criticisms levelled against the game are all valid criticisms and you can easily understand why the game was docked review points for those issues.

Unfortunately, as the original review was removed, the astonishingly bad review can no longer be viewed there. Luckily for us, Yahoo Games hasn't purged its review coffer yet! For posterity (and a good laugh), full text of the IGN review is copied here:

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This game gets a red card, and possibly a lifetime ban.
By: Avi Burk

What sports fan doesn't want to take control of his favorite team and guide it to a championship, or, better yet, a long string of championships? Well, if it means playing Worldwide Soccer Manager, you can count me in that number.

Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 gives gamers the chance to manage and coach 5,000 soccer teams from 50 countries around the globe, giving them the chance to manage every aspect of their team's roster, field questions from reporters at their team's press conferences, and coach their teams in real time as each simulated game unfolds. What it doesn't do, more importantly, is provide any compelling reason to keep "playing."

Although the game's database of more than 350,000 real-life soccer players is certainly impressive, only the most diehard fans of the sport would be able to appreciate having such a massive pool of talent to sift through, and the casual fan would almost certainly find the task overwhelming – I did.

The game's incredibly complex menu system is very difficult to navigate, even with the on-screen help box directing you through the process. In short, this game is extremely difficult to simply pick up and play. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise expect to spend a significant amount of time simply trying to figure out how to navigate the menus.

Worldwide Soccer Manager's presentation problems don't end there though, once you finally make it to your team's first game you'll find that the player renderings and animations are awful, and the stadiums you play in lack any kind of personality or detail. Each field is bordered by fences and what appear to be unfinished stands, which don't have any fans in them. And, when the ball is kicked off of the pitch, it passes smoothly through the surrounding fences, right through the stands, and disappears from view only to return to the field in the same fashion, appearing magically from the stands and passing through the fences (and goals) on its way back into play.

Then there's the sound, or lack thereof. There is no soundtrack that plays while you work in the game's menus, which you'll spend the vast majority of your time in this game doing. There is no audio narration to accompany your participation in press conferences, even though your options for how to respond to each question is incredibly limited. There is no audio commentary to accompany the action in the simulated game's you watch/coach. In fact, the only sound we found in the entire game was the tones of fans cheering as each simulated game played out – which only detracts from the game's feel of authenticity seeing as there are no fans rendered in the stands.

As far as traditional gameplay goes, there really isn't any in Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009. Apart from managing your roster and coaching your team, there really isn't anything to do at all. So, unless you really enjoy clicking on menu buttons, you'll find your interaction with this game extremely disappointing.

However, if you're a big footie fan and big fan of sports simulation, you'll be extremely impressed with the depth of Worldwide Soccer Manager, which allows you to control just about every facet of your team and draw from a player pool that is simply mindboggling.

Closing Comments
This game obviously aims to provide the deepest soccer simulation experience possible for the sport’s most passionate and informed fans, but it offers little to nothing that would appeal to a casual fan of the sport or to the average videogame enthusiast. The menus are complex and difficult to navigate, graphics are terrible, the sound is non-existent and there is no traditional gameplay to speak of. I couldn’t imagine why anybody would prefer Worldwide Soccer Manager to FIFA 09 or Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.

FM2006 - season 2025/26

I've been spending a lot of time on FM06 lately (the missus has been hogging the TV so I can't get any X360 time in).

Liverpool
I've just completed season 2025/26 and, as usual, won the Premier League and the Champions Cup. However, unlike prior years, the season was a little hit and miss. Over the last couple of years, my priority has been to bump up my club's bank balance and develop young talent at the club. Although I've succeeded, the cost has been that my squad hasn't been as strong as it could have been - and this really showed in a couple of matches. The biggest statistical indicator of my difficulty has been the fact that I only scored 70+ goals in the premier league this season (I normally score over 100).

The upside is that I had tons of money in the bank. Seeing as the squad was weak, I decided to spend all my money!

Over the course of the summer, I spent GBP97 million in buying new players (not all of it planned). Before your eyes fall too far out of your head, I should mention that the 97m is a result of 2 years transfer budget.

In the second half of the 2025/26 season, I signed Marcio, a Brazilian DM in the center of the park (Van der Linden was getting old), on a free transfer. I also bought Danielle Galli (AM RLC) for GBP12 million and Carlos Sanchez (ST) for GBP45 million. This was initially going to be enough but during the summer, Dave Roberts (my superstar GK) decided he wanted a new challenge and requested a transfer. This really left me in a pinch and I had to spend GBP40million buying another GK.

The end result is that I've probably got the strongest squad I've had in a long long time.

Italy
Unfortunately, I didn't do so well with Italy. After winning Euro 2024 with Italy, I had high hopes for the 2026 World Cup. Unfortunately, I didn't count on my top ST retiring.

Although I qualified for the World Cup with ease, I struggled in the early stages and didn't qualify for the knockout stages till the final group game. Two games later and I came across England who promptly knocked me out. The only consolation is that England went on to win the World Cup (and have done so 3 times in a row now!).

Part of the problem was that all of my players were unfit (with the exception of the 3 players who played in the premiership). After such a poor showing, and coupled with the frustration of unfit players, I decided to bring my international career to an end and quit the Italy post.

The Italian FA begged me to stay (I had been there 6 years and won Euro 2024 along with some minor cups) but I held firm and rejected them along with all the other International job offers )got offers from Germany, France and Spain). At this moment, the only way I will reenter the International job market is if England become available.

When reviews get it wrong

I don't talk about bad game reviews very often. Lets face it, in most cases, it is almost impossible to say that a review is bad. After all, whether you like a game or not can often come down to personal preferences.

However, every once in a while, you see a review that you can actually objectively call bad, by any definition of the word. And I recently came across such a review for Football Manager 2009. Or rather, Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009 as the review was from an american.

First up, in the interest of being upfront - I should say that I am a fan of the Football Manager franchise from SI games. Secondly, I have never played FM2009 (in fact, I'm still playing FM2006!). Despite this, from reading the criticisms leveled against FM09, it is clear that this is a bad review.

Too many players
You know you are in for a bad review when the first criticism against the game is that the game has over 350,000 real life players. Apparently, the reviewer found the task of finding new talent to be overwhelming. WTF?!?!?!

At this point, I already know the reviewer has never played a modern football management sim before. You aren't supposed to trawl through 350,000 players - what do you think your scouts are for?

No fans
Another of his complaints is that the graphics engine doesn't show any fans. I can actually sympathise with this complaint. After all, how am I going to simulate being banned to the stand (or a karate kick on the fans) amidst all the plebs if the plebby fans aren't actually present? Shocking, I know. Clearly, SI Games have no concept of what wannabe football managers are actually looking for.

Actually, to be fair, this is part of his broader complaint against the graphics of the game. And again, to be fair, the graphics in the FM franchise have always been either poor or non-existent. The sad thing is that the reviewer has completely missed the reality that when you are trying to simulate the life of a football manager, graphics really aren't the priority.

No sound
The reviewer also complains that the only sound available is the sound of fans on matchday (which the reviewer apparently finds very strange as there aren't actually any fans watching based on his observation that he doesn't see any fans being rendered by the game engine). I'm guessing the reviewer was disappointed by the lack of licensed music in the games menu's.

Gameplay
The reviewer also finds traditional gameplay to be non-existent as all you do is click on menu buttons. I'm guessing he was disappointed that he didn't get to control each player and pass the ball around before scoring - In fact, the reviewer goes on to say "I couldn’t imagine why anybody would prefer Worldwide Soccer Manager to FIFA 09 or Pro Evolution Soccer 2009"....

Valid comment
The reviewer mentions that the game isn't targeted at casual fans and that if you have never played a game in the FM franchise before, you will have a steep learning curve to struggle through. And for once, the reviewer is right.

SI Games are striving to create the most accurate simulation of a football manager possible in a computer game. The downside to their success in meeting their vision is that the game does become incredibly difficult for casual gamers to enjoy. There is no easy difficulty. There are no handicaps or options that you can tick to make it easier. There is only the reality that if you buy this game, you are buying the most detailed and accurate simulation of being a football manager available today.

Summary
Despite the bad review, I really don't blame the reviewer as the fault (in my opinion) clearly lies with IGN. This reviewer should never have been given this game to review.

It is painfully clear that the reviewer has never played a football management sim before in his life. Not only that, but the reviewer was clearly expecting something similar to your normal footy action game (it was literally painful to hear him compare the game to FIFA09 and PES). The sad thing is that he compared it to action games instead of to other football management simulations. If he was expecting an action game, then no wonder he didn't "get it" and hated the game.

I really don't mind that he didn't like the game. The FM franchise has always been niche and targeted at hardcore football fans (which is why the IGN UK review score for FM09 is so high while the IGN US review score is so low - lets face it, most americans aren't exactly football fans, never mind hardcore football fans) and there are several other options for people who aren't so hardcore. However, IGN really need to sort themselves out - the review is frankly embarrassing coming from a large organisation like them.

Gears of War 2 - singleplayer

Two years after the release of Gears of War, Epic Games have given us the sequel to their stop-n-pop tactical action masterpiece. And although the juxtaposition of tactical and action may seem strange - it applies perfectly in this case.

So far, I've been mainly playing campaign so my comments will focus on the singleplayer and co-op campaign mode. Multiplayer commentary to come in a later post.

The short version of this is - Yes, Epic Games have delivered a fantastic sequel worthy of the GoW franchise. And just like before, if you like action games and own an X360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Story
The story picks up shortly after the end of the original Gears of War. By the end of the first game, you were able to kill the bad guys, bed the hot girls, cause mass destruction (using that funky new missile technology I talked about in my original review) and basically save the day. Actually, you don't get to bed any hot girls but hey, three out of four ain't bad (kinda like a modern Bond film, really!).

Unfortunately, that new missile tech doesn't actually kill off all the Locust (fancy that, military intelligence screwing up. I never would have guessed that would happen...). All it seems to do is really piss off the Locust as they are now launching an all out offensive against Jacinto, humanity's last remaining bastion of civilisation and beacon of hope for all humanity. Reinforcements are low and hopes are grim. Basically, the Locust are one step away from wiping out all humanity and playing Dance Dance Revolution on our grave.

By this point in the narrative, the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) has its back to the wall and has to resort to desperate measures if humanity is to have any hope of survival. The COG does the only thing it can do. It takes all remaining soldiers and launches an all out offensive against the Locust stronghold.

What a brilliant idea! I'm sure the Gears will only run into minimal resistance as they attack the Locust stronghold. After all, all the Locust will be surrounding Jacinto. Take that Locust! All our base are not belong to you!!!

And this is basically where the game starts. Reprising the role of Marcus Fenix, your job is to take your squad and attack the queen inside the Locust stronghold. Along the way, Dominic Santiago will be looking for his wife and, surprise surprise, the two routes actually converge. Over the course of the campaign, you will kill the bad guys, bed the hot girls, cause mass destruction and basically save the day again. Well, three out of four ain't bad right?

One of the design goals for GoW2 was apparently to make it "bigger, better and more badass". And you really see this come through in the campaign. In addition to the campaign itself being significantly longer, Epic Games have taken full advantage of advancements in their Unreal Engine technology. There are several scenes during the campaign where you are literally facing off against a Locust horde - something they were unable to do in the first game due to the limited number of locust the graphics engine could put on screen.

The other big thing that Epic Games tried to do with GoW2 was to make the storyline more emotional. This is basically where Dom's search for his missing wife comes in. During the course of the campaign, various cinematics detail Dom's and his emotions as he searches desperately for his wife. Unfortunately, the absolutely hammy script and godawful acting prevent you from actually feeling any of the emotions which Epic tried to invoke (although admittedly, the scene where Dom finally succeeds and actually finds his wife is done quite well).

To quote from my first GoW review - Story has always taken second fiddle in action games so I suppose its no surprise that GoW(2) didn't buck the trend.

Gameplay
The gameplay in the first GoW was, to be perfectly honest, superb. In fact, it was so good that, even if Epic didn't make any changes to the gameplay, they could still probably release GoW2 and have a best seller on their hands. Luckily for gamers everywhere, the people at Epic Games aren't quite as lazy as I am and have made a host of tweaks to the gameplay mechanics.

One of the most noticable tweaks is with the cover system itself. With the original GoW, it was quite easy for Marcus to accidentally slide into cover when you were actually trying to roadie run past the cover. In Gow2, although it does still happens occasionally, there are much fewer instances of accidentally jumping into cover. Which is great as I signed up in order to fight the locust, not the controls...

Epic Games have also introduced lots of new toys for you to play around with. Unfortunately, most of the new weapons don't really shine until you get into multiplayer or co-op mode. The problem is that you can only carry two guns. In singleplayer mode, this means that you invariably choose one long range weapon and 1 short and medium range weapon. For long range, I generally prefer the sniper which means my other weapon will generally be the lancer (and its awesome chainsaw - after 2 years, I still love that chainsaw animation!!). Admittedly, this may just have been a problem with my preferences, but I definitely felt that the sniper and lancer combo gave me the best chance of surviving any situation.

However, if you play the campaign in co-op, the new weapons really start to add flavour. At this point, you can grab the other weapons safe in the knowledge that your partner can cover any shortcomings in your weapon pairing. For example, at one point during the campaign, I was armed with the sniper rifle and flamethrower while my partner had the torque bow and lancer.

Our tactics were generally for one guy to go forward and draw fire while the other guy gave covering fire. So if he moved forward, I would stay back with the sniper rifle and headshot any enemies attacking him. Alternatively, if I moved forward, I would use the flamethrower from behind cover (the constant stream of flame from the flamethrower means that it is very effective when blindfiring from behind cover) to burn enemies while safely behind cover. This would force the enemy out of cover and allow my partner to hit him with the torque bow. All in all, a great strategy which worked really well for the most part (we were playing co-op on Insane difficulty).

Of the new weapons, my favourite is without a doubt, the flamethrower - not because it is the most effective but because it looks the coolest. Unfortunately, as a close range weapon, it isn't as good as the lancer (with its instant kill chainsaw). However, the flamethrower just looks awesome. Whenever you use the flamethrower on someone, you first see them light up as they burn. And then if you get the kill using the flamethrower, the dead body is just a charred husk. Too freaking cool!!

Graphics
Again, Epic Games have raised the bar for graphics quality on the X360. Despite being on the same hardware, there is a very noticable upgrade in graphics from the original Gears to the sequel. Possibly, the upgrade in graphics is really noticable because the game is a 3rd person shooter so you really see Marcus (and the characters have an incredible amount of detail on them) up close in lots of situations.

The campaign has also been specially designed to show off the strengths of the Unreal engine. Throughout the campaign, you end up in some really wacky situations which you suspect the developers only thought up so that they could take advantage of the new features of the Unreal engine. Having said that, the lighting effects in this game are incredible. There are a couple of areas where the game is pitch black except for a light from a nearby vehicle or from Jack (your friendly robot AI whose main job is to open doors).

Summary
Another great game from Epic Games and it really looks like they have created another must-have franchise on the X360. Come the end of the year, I would be very surprised if GoW2 didn't pick up several awards in the various gaming publications (although there are some very good candidates this year - its been a good year for gaming).

As with the original GoW, if you like action games and own an X360, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Everton Manager 2009

Instead of thinking about what to write on my gaming blog, I spent the entire weekend playing Gears of War 2 (or at least, all of my personal spare time!). Unfortunately, this leaves me with a quandary as to what to do on this blog (having said that - spending too much time playing video games isn't exactly a bad way to go!).

Hence this morning, a quick trawl of news sites to see if there was anything interesting I could talk about. Luckily for me - this showed up. Everton has struck a deal for access to the full database used by Football Manager 2009. Apparently, they intend to use the database to help them scout for new young talent.

On the face of it, this sounds ridiculous. However, if you give it some thought, it isn't as outrageous as it initially appears.

As a long term player of Football Manager, one thing which I have consistently noticed is how good the scouting in Football Manager is. There has been loads of times where I signed a hot prospect in the game for my Liverpool squad who then turned out to be a good player in real life (several years down the line of course). The other common situation is buying a good player after several in-game years and then, after several years have passed in real life, seeing that same player become a household name.

Obviously not every good player identified by the game will turn out to be good in real life - there are too many variables affecting a players performance for that to be possible. However, it happens often enough that you have to think that you may be able to find some "hidden" gems by reviewing the FM database. Admittedly, real life factors will limit who Everton could sign (for example, some 15 year old from Argentina may not be willing or able to relocate to the UK) and I suspect that the bulk of any identified players will be young players from the Championship. Still, if they can get some cheap young potential prospects who will become useful squad players in a couple of years - why not?

And this is what it comes down to. In conjunction with their normal scouts (who I'm sure would scout out the player before actually buying), this may allow Everton to identify and buy future squad players on the cheap.

Fable II

I've been mucking around with Fable II lately. Before you ask, yes, I did buy Gears of War 2 but as I've only just got it, it would be premature to start talking about it, no?

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been mucking around with Fable II lately. I won't talk much about the game itself (you can read online reviews if that is what you are looking for) but I really wanted to give my thoughts on the game itself.

My initial impressions of the game were very good, and if I had been writing this last week, the tone of the blog would have been all positive. You see, Fable II is the kind of game that really gives a good first impression.

You have an expansive world to explore. There are loads of citizens to interact with. Loads of property to buy. And what seems like loads of stuff to do - quests, jobs etc. The problem is that the game is very shallow and I can see that it would get boring after a while (admittedly, it hasn't started to get boring for me yet, but I can see that happening in the not too distant future). What do I mean by shallow? Well, let me give you some examples.

One of the big things about the game is meant to be that you can interact with all the various denizens of Albion and even get them to fall in love with you (whereupon its "wham, bam thank you ma'am!" followed by the sounds of tiny feet pattering around the marital home). In theory, this sounds good - lots of potential for roleplaying as you woo your future wife. In practice - not so much.

You start the game with no money and pauper clothes. While dressed like a pauper, no-one particularly notices you. However, as soon as I had enough money, I was able to buy myself a snazzy set of noble's clothing. Whereupon, everything with 2 legs and a hole seemed to think that I was James Bond. Suddenly, everywhere I went, I was surrounded by members of the female sex declaring their undying love for me. All I had to do was sneeze and people would offer me discounts on healing potions.

And the dreaded task of wooing a wench to be my lawfully wedded wife? All I had to do was buy a ring and then "wham bam ..." - well, you get the idea. I got a wife but I couldn't help but think - "what an easy slag!" (especially as everytime I see her, she wants to have sex! Its getting to the stage where I think I accidentally married a bitch permanently in heat!!).

The game also makes a big thing about the economy. Shopkeepers will occasionally offer discounts or jack up prices if they suffer a shortage. The economy also impacts property prices. Again, in practice, several things conspire to make this relatively meaningless. You see, in Fable II, money is never in short supply.

Jobs are on offer for you to make money. Although the jobs differ, the minigame attached is invariably about hitting a button at the right moment. The only difference in jobs is when you should hit that button. Can anyone say repetitive? Even if you don't want to take on a job, you can really start to earn money by being a property magnate. Once you can afford your first property (probably some kind of shop stall), its easy to make a fortune from property. How?

All you have to do is nothing. Literally nothing. Even when you aren't playing the game, you still get rental income from the property. So if you switch off your Xbox, go to bed and then log back on the next evening (say after work), you suddenly find yourself with a stack of money. Once you realise how easy it is to get money, you stop caring about the economy. Quite frankly, it doesn't matter if I'm buying goods at an inflated price when I know that I will have plenty of money by tomorrow evening anyway.

Quests are also disappointing in that there don't seem to be many quests. Granted, this may simply be because I haven't gotten very far in the game yet. But somehow, that's not the impression I get. I'll know more after I finish the game, but the impression I get is that there really aren't a lot of quests because I suspect the developers expected people to be busy doing other stuff (like wooing the nympho wife or looking out for discounts before going shopping).

To be honest, I'm being highly unfair on Fable II. Looking back at the above, it sounds like I'm not enjoying the game. However, the truth is that, despite all of the faults I mention above, I am having loads of fun just running around living my life in Albion (including doing the odd repetitive job). Fable II is the kind of game that would be really boring if you just shot through the main quest. However, when you wander around and immerse yourself in Albion, then all the little charms and quirks come through and you find yourself having fun despite the faults.

Of course, I fully intend to replay the game so that I can see the alternative endings. The problem is that, at this moment in time, I really don't know if I'll be able to live another life in Albion when I start my second character. And this is what concerns me and what led to the negative post above.

The acid test for any game is, of course, would I recommend it to someone else. The answer is maybe.

If you prefer RPGs with a good story, then I would suggest you have a long hard think before you buy this game. This isn't to say that you won't have fun (after all, I'm having fun despite my gaming preference for story driven RPGs) but rather that to enjoy Fable II, you really have to forgo the story and just life your life.

However, if you enjoy open world games then I really can recommend this title for you. And as acid tests go, I guess that isn't too bad.

The industry vs used games

Wow - 2 gaming posts in 1 weekend! To be fair though, I need to make up for the fact that I didn't post anything last weekend.

Anyway, if you follow the gaming industry, you will know that the industry really hates second hand sales of used games. The problem being that the publisher doesn't get any cut of the profits when people buy and sell second hand games. Over the last several years, publishers have tried various methods to kill off the used games market and so far all have failed.

The latest attempt is to put in extras for the first time buyer of the game. For example, Gears of War 2 will ship with a unique one-time use code which allows you to download additional multiplayer maps. Subsequent owners of that copy of the game will not get these additional maps and the maps will not be available any other way. The idea is that this will encourage people to buy the game new rather than used.

To be honest, I'm not sure what my position is on this.

On one hand, I can understand why the publishers are doing this. From the publishers (and developer's) point of view, they really only get any money if the game is sold new. There are several obvious counter-arguments but I think a big one that the publisher may have forgotten is that second hand games are a good way to build goodwill. The buyer may not have any experience with your game or franchise. Second hand games allow people to spend a small amount of money and play the game. This could well get you a fan who will then buy your next game new.

Another argument for the publisher is that they aren't doing anything wrong. They are simply giving people who give them money an additional bonus - nothing wrong with that right? Again, the obvious danger is the slippery slope argument where developers purposefully leave out key content. However, in my opinion, this is the kind of decision that has to be made on a case by case basis. In other words, if I think your company is taking the piss, then I won't buy the game. The key is whether the game is worth the full price you are paying regardless of the additional content and as I said above, this can only be made on a case by case basis.

However, my biggest concern is what happens when my X360 dies. This isn't exactly unknown (I'm already on my second X360 as my first one died with the RROD). If my console dies, will I be able to redownload all the additional content that I am entitled to from buying the game new? Logically, you would think I would be able to get that content back. However, looking at the history of shit which some game companies pull off, I really can't be certain of this.

EA needs to learn to STFU

Recently, I blogged about why I was adding EA to my boycott list. Now John Riccitiello (CEO at EA) has spoken up on the issue - and quite frankly, its another response that just pisses me off.

Its funny as the interview actually starts off okay. For example, this line:

Everyone gets that we need some level of protection
True - everyone does get this. I have stated repeatedly that I have no problem with DRM as long as it doesn't become intrusive. The DRM on Spore (and Mass Effect PC) was very borderline and was just uncomfortably into the realm of maybe a bit too intrusive. However, at the time, although I was annoyed, I wasn't pissed off. I only got pissed off when they gave their half assed response which really didn't take into account the valid concerns I felt I, and many other gamers, had.

[But it was] a minority of [anti-DRM] people that orchestrated a great PR program
And this is when the interview starts to go wrong. Yes, statistically speaking, the people who were up in arms about DRM probably were a minority (after all, sales of the game have been very good). However, the statement completely ignores the valid concerns that gamers had. I mean, its not like Spore was the first game to be hit with anti-DRM complaints.

Even if you ignore other publishers, when Mass Effect PC was released, the BioWare forums were up in arms and you had well over a hundred people stating that they wouldn't buy the game based on the DRM (this was before EA relaxed the DRM slightly). Just in case you weren't aware, EA had already purchased BioWare by this stage and must have known about the controversy.

What was particularly interesting about the Spore DRM controversy was that the game was being panned in the Amazon user reviews for having draconian DRM (I blogged about it here). What made this interesting was not that gamers were complaining about it on forums - but rather that they had gone out into the real world (for lack of a better phrase) and panned the game on Amazon which very possibly led to lost sales.

As far as I can tell, this was an ad-hoc and unplanned reaction. It wasn't a call to arms by gamers to pan Spore in Amazon. Rather, some people gave poor reviews for this reason and then the idea just caught on like a bush fire and spread. I'm not the only one to reach this conclusion (read here - and before you ask, I have no idea who he is).

This suggests, to me at least, that gamers are seriously pissed about this and that it isn't just a PR campaign by a couple of anti-DRM activists.

I'm guessing that half of them were pirates, and the other half were people caught up in something that they didn't understand
So I'm either a pirate or I didn't understand the issue. Way to diss my valid concerns - you arrogant c*$k sucking son of a b*$ch. In case its not obvious, it was this statement that really pissed me off.

None of the games I play on my PC are pirated - all of them are either store bought or legally downloaded (and can anyone explain to me why a pirate would even care about DRM considering that they don't have to deal with it?). I didn't buy or illegally download Spore. I already bought and completed ME on my X360 which is why I wasn't interested in the PC version.

So according to John Riccitiello, I didn't understand the issue. Here's news for you Johnny boy - I understand the issue just fine. What pushed me over the line into boycotting EA wasn't the shitty DRM on your PC games (although I will admit I was worried about it). I am boycotting EA because of the shitty response to valid concerns which I, and many others, have expressed.

If your view is that my concerns aren't valid and that they should be ignored, don't be surprised when I no longer support your company or its products.

Fallout 3 - not as bad as I thought?

You may recall a while ago that I posted that I had given up hope on Fallout 3 on the basis that it was too similar to Oblivion (which I didn't like much - not my style of RPG).

However, recent previews of Fallout 3 have been very positive. But by far the most interesting preview was the one by Kotaku. Most previews harp on about how similar the game is to Oblivion -which is probably good in most cases but in my case, just turns me off the game. However, Kotaku actually looked at how similar the game was to previous Fallout games.

Their conclusion is that the game is 50:50. Apparently, the similarities with Oblivion are with regard to the viewpoint and movement. On the other hand, the similarities with Fallout are the vibe and the conversation elements. All in all, this preview has gotten me semi-excited for this game again.

And the best thing? Bethesda have announced that they will have noninvasive DRM on Fallout 3.

Permanently disbarred

Permanently disbarred.

hahaha - couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
:)

EA responds to Spore DRM

EA has given an official response to the Spore DRM controversy. Unfortunately, given the response, it really doesn't give any hope for future EA PC games. Which is a real bitch considering that BioWare are now owned by EA (my precious Dragon Age!!!).

I'll dissect the areas of the response that I have issue with below. Meanwhile, I just want to say again that this is a real bitch considering that BioWare are now owned by EA (I was really really really looking forward to Dragon Age).

"We felt that limiting the number of machine authorizations to three wouldn’t be a problem."
WTF?!?! How can you not think that this would be a problem? Don't the fucking morons at EA keep an eye on the gaming industry? I mean, considering that EA s in the gaming industry to begin with, you would think they would have noticed all the negative reactions to DRM. For example, Ubisoft getting slapped with a lawsuit re DRM and the whole brouhaha regarding BioShock.

But then, maybe I'm being unfair. After all, the above happened to other companies and maybe EA really don't pay any attention to other companies in the industry. Oh wait, never mind - I just remembered the whole DRM controversy surrounding the PC release of Mass Effect. I guess EA are morons after all.

We assumed that consumers understand piracy is a huge problem – and that if games that take 1-4 years to develop are effectively stolen the day they launch, developers and publishers will simply stop investing in PC games.
I guess this sounds reasonable. After all, with the official release date on 5 September (7 September in the US), EA will be looking to get as many sales as possible post launch, when hype for the game is at its highest, before the game gets cracked and posted on bittorrents.

Oh look - the game was cracked during the weekend of 30 August and by 3 September, there were already over 10,000 downloads. In other words, even before the game was launched in the US, it had already been cracked and downloaded over 10,000 times. So much for EA trying to prevent the game being stolen on the day they launch.

In case its not clear - I just want to add that in this case, pirates not only get the better product (no DRM) but they also get the game sooner than people who buy the game. The truth is that if you look at the history of piracy, cracked versions of games generally appear within a couple of days of the games release. DRM has NEVER been effective in stopping piracy - it has only ever been effective at punishing honest game buyers.

We have found that 75 percent of our consumers install and play any particular game on only one machine and less than 1 percent every try to play on more than three different machines.
And again, EA shows that they just aren't listening to their consumers (despite any claims from themselves to the contrary). The problem with this isn't that consumers install on more than 3 machines.

The problem (as has been fully explained in numerous forum posts) is that the game counts the below situations as an extra install:

1. Reinstalling the game - I have lost track of the number of times I have installed my PC games. There is this little thing called nostalgia which, believe it or not, means that people will come back to their favourite games again and again. Christ, I'm in the middle of replaying Baldur's Gate at the moment and that was released in 1998!
2. Upgrading hardware - Even upgrading hardware, not exactly an unknown occurrence for PC users, will be treated as a separate install. I'm guessing the reason for this is that the game just assumes you reinstalled it on a new PC.

In other words, if you use your PC like a PC, you are going to run foul of the 3 install limit - at which point you need to contact EA if you want to play the game again. EA have said that they will increase the install limit to 5. Although this helps slightly, all it really does is delay the inevitable.

We assured consumers that if special circumstances warranted more than three machines, they could contact our customer service team and request additional authorizations.
This would have actually meant something to me if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of forum posters are complaining about how EA gives shitty customer service. Granted, not everyone (dare I say most?) is going to have a problem contacting EA support - and I'm sure this will be a great consolation to you when you happen to be the unlucky bastard who has to call them and can't get hold of a CSR with half a brain.

The thing is, considering that DRM doesn't work at all, this is just a useless extra hoop that gamers have to jump through (which pirates don't). Can you blame people for being upset?

Wrapup
EA say they are "disappointed by the misunderstanding surrounding the use of DRM software". Well, I'm disappointed by the misunderstanding shown by EA with regard to gamers concerns (and I'm being kind by saying misunderstanding).

They then go on to say "Without the ability to protect our work from piracy, developers across the entire game industry will eventually stop investing time and money in PC titles". Bullshit. Stardock have shown that you can still be successful without using DRM. Gamers have also shown that they will accept DRM if it is unobtrusive - Steam is highly acclaimed by gamers precisely because the DRM on it is unobtrusive.

Frankly, this sounds like EA threatening gamers with "deal with it or we stop developing PC games".

This response from EA is entirely unacceptable and I, for one, have had enough. Until EA changes its policies, I will no longer be buying any EA game. Luckily for me, I didn't buy Madden 09 and that Fifa 09 hadn't been released yet (Fifa 09 for the X360 was the next game I was looking to buy). As I said above, the real bitch is that this means I will also be missing out on Dragon Age (and all future games by BioWare).

EA - Fuck you.

Spore (and DRM)

And yet another DRM post.

This time, its about Spore. The game is published by EA and, as with all current EA games, it comes with SecuRom DRM. And as per usual, gamers are up in arms.

What is interesting about the current situation is that gamers have gone onto Amazon and have panned the game in reviews there. Currently, there are over 2,000 negative reviews on Amazon and a recurring theme is the complaints about DRM. From a consumer point of view, it is very much looking like the tolerance for any kind of DRM is dropping.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Stardock is full of smart people.

Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

Recently, I have been playing around with the demo for SWTFU. The premise behind this game is that you are Darth Vader's secret apprentice. The game is set between episodes III and IV and details how you hunt down and kill some jedi masters. What makes this game so exciting for Star Wars fans is that you get to use various dark side of the force powers to kick ass during the game.

As a Star Wars nerd, and a huge fan of Kotor, you can imagine that I was really looking for to this game. Unfortunately, the key word there is "was".

After playing the demo, I have to say that I am disappointed. At first, I couldn't pinpoint why I found the game boring. Eventually, I realised what it was - the game seemed to lack depth.

For the demo, all of the powers had been unlocked (although I don't know what level the powers had been set to). However, when running around killing stormtroopers, it really didn't feel like I was a powerful jedi. In fact, the tactical combat options seemed very limited. Each combat scenario resolved itself in the same way - either run in and lightsaber people using various combos or use force grip to throw something at them. Force lightning was available but quite frankly, not only did it look crap, it also seemed pretty feeble.

To be fair, I don't know if this is a case of poor demo or a case of poor game. Possibly, once you level up your skills, the game opens up in terms of options. Possibly.

Either way, my enthusiasm for this game has taken a dive.

Walmart finally enters the 20th century

Haven't made any game related posts in a while - primarily cos I don't have any new games and not much has been happening in the game market that I can add to. However, one of the things I have done is to update the links section on the right with some of the gaming sites that I keep track of.

In particular, Kotaku is a good source for gaming news and rumors. And every once in a while, their humor knocks one out of the ballpark.

GTA IV - final impressions

I've finally finished GTA IV - according to the ingame clock, I spent over 70 hours on the game. I gave my impressions of the single player game a while ago (click here) and, for the most part, those impressions have held through the game. In terms of final impressions, there is only one more thing that I would add.

In my initial impressions, one of the strengths that I listed was that the game had so much you could do in terms of hanging out with your (ingame) friends. However, it turns out that this is also one of the games weak points.

In the second half of the game, you build up a small repertoire of friends. One of the achievements in this game is for all your friends to like you at least 90% by the end of the game. This also has ingame benefits as each friend confers benefits to you if they like you enough (for example cheap guns, car bombs etc).

The problem is that you have so many friends (and girlfriends) that they just end up getting in the way. Any time you are on a mission, or hanging out with one of your friends, another one of them invariably calls up and you end up having to bail out which leads to a drop in your friendship rating. In the end, you spend so much time hanging out with your friends that you don't seem to have time for the actual missions themselves! Furthermore, although there are lots of different things for you to do, you spend so much time hanging out that it actually gets very repetitive.

In the end, I just gave up trying to butter them up and just completed the missions. This really destroyed the immersiveness of the game for me near the end. At that point, it was painfully obvious that you were playing a game, as opposed to living out the life of a former Euro soldier in USA.

In effect, great game - shame about the ending.

Baldur's Gate Trilogy

I have always enjoyed BioWares RPGs and the Baldur's Gate Trilogy (from BioWare!) is without a doubt, my favourite RPG series of all time. The original Baldur's Gate was very much a dungeon crawl and had all the issues that classic dungeon crawlers have (ie how to engage your interest over long periods of just killing things). BioWare managed to solve this riddle for BG2 when they really beefed up character interaction and allowed you to romance some of the NPCs.

However, some enterprising modders have been able to mod BG2 so that you can play the original BG using the BG2 engine (enhanced graphics!). To take advantage of this, I recently started to replay BG using the BG2 engine together with a few other mods.


This is the character that I'm using. An elven archer - one of the kits available for rangers in BG2. And yes, he looks like Legolas (from Lord of the Rings) because I downloaded a picture of him off the web.
:)


This highlights one of my favourite tactics with the Archer. The archer has decent sneaking skills so I generally use him to scout ahead and see where enemies are (before sending in a fireball!).

I also downloaded and installed the BG NPC banter pack. The banter pack is a great addition as it really beefs up the NPC interactions. It even allows you to romance some of the NPCs. Here you can see a running dialogue as I try to romance Dynaheir.


In terms of where I am, I have cleared out most of the wilderness areas and I'm just about to enter cloakwood forest. You can see here a brief video that was taken just after I cleared out the bandit camp (unfortunately, the quality isn't good enough for you to read the text - still, you can hear the voiceover which may bring back some memories!).

btw - I'm using FRAPS to record the movies and screenshots. However, I am using the unregistered version so I'm restricted to just 30 second movies. Shame as I originally wanted to record the dream sequence which comes after this.

Fallout 3

Although I've never played the original Fallout, Fallout 2 was a very good RPG. Definitely a classic and well deserved too.

The thing about cRPGs like Fallout 2 though is that it belongs to a dying cRPG market in that it is a deep RPG with lots of meaningful choices and good tactical combat. Games like this just don't come out very often anymore (although I'm hoping that Dragon Age:Origins will break that trend!).

In any event, considering the history of Fallout 2, it was with a certain level of anticipation when I started to hear about a new Fallout 3 game in development. Of course, this anticipation was heavily tinged with fear when I realised that Bethesda were the new developers. Don't get me wrong - Bethesda are good developers. I played Oblivion and I can see that it was a well developed game, with a huge open world and lots to do etc. The problem is that the type of RPG that they create isn't the kind of RPG that I like.

I could spend hours talking about all the problems and reasons why Oblivion sucked as an RPG. However, this post is targeted at Fallout 3 so I'll pass for now.

Despite my obvious trepidation, I decided to defer judgement till the Bethesda actually finished the game. Although the game isn't finished, initial previews are coming out from the E3 event. However, it is the IGN preview in particular which caught my eye.

The preview starts really well:

"calling Fallout 3 one of the most impressive videogames of the year ... isn't meant to be hyperbole. Even in its unoptimized stage ... , Fallout 3 is still one of the most engaging and playable titles this side of Liberty City... and I've only tested it for about an hour."

Wow - high praise indeed considering its still a preview. But then the next paragraph has:

"Fallout 3 is very much Oblivion in a post-apocalyptic world. So if you didn't like that game, or the series for that matter, then ignore everything I've said thus far and go read something else."

I have to say that I stopped reading and gave up all hope on this game.

Roll on Dragon Age...

FM06 - screenshots at last!

I haven't really been updating this gaming blog much. The problem is that I'm still playing GTAIV so not really anything new to talk about. In times like this, the only thing you can do is turn to ye olde faithful - FM2006.

However, this time, I have screenshots!! On a side note, can you believe it took me this long to figure out how to take screenshots? Doh!!

The English Premier Division

:)
Not much to say other than that when it comes to the premiership - I kick ass!

European Champions Cup

:)
As you can see, it took me a while but I now currently own the UCL as well.

My squad

The reason for my success comes down to the kickass squad I compiled. With nine players valued over GBP10m, you can see why I'm dominating. In fact, I really should have ten players valued over GBP10m but Claudio Bruno's value dropped when he got injured.

You can see that Dave Roberts has really blossomed into a world class goalkeeper after Casillas retired - only 23 years old and already valued at GBP17.25m (incidentally, he is the highest value GK in the game). The only problem is that I don't have any decent GK backup.

Considering my four strikers have a combined value of GBP56.75m, you can also see that I put a lot of importance on my strikers. Bear in mind, the figure would be higher if it wasn't for the fact that I promoted Blake into the first team for the purpose of developing his talent (he is a hot prospect for the future).

You can also see a 34 year old Gerry in there. I added him in when I started this game as a super player able to play in midfield or attack. Although he is a key player in my squad, he was never able to develop into a prolific goalscorer (always seemed to prefer creating goals rather than actually scoring) so I now play him in midfield.
:)

Last point - can you believe the number of high value England players in my squad?!?! In this game, England are a complete powerhouse. They have now won two consecutive World Cups and two consecutive European championships and based on the strength of their squad, it looks like their run is going to continue. I'm not sure how England managed to develop into such a powerhouse but suspect it is due to the fact that I only picked England when I setup the leagues.

Having said that, my Brazil squad managed to beat them in the Final of a minor international tournament so they aren't invincible. After that victory, I got offered the manager position for Italy which I took up (they had a better squad) just in time for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. And what do you know - I am drawn against England in the quarterfinal.

For 80 minutes, I was able to outplay them. I had better possession, better attacking play (but kept being denied by Dave Roberts!) and was leading by 1-0. Unfortunately, in the last 10 minutes, Kevin Palmer (another one of my Liverpool players) decided to turn on the class and scored two wonder goals - both shots coming from outside the box. I lost 2-1 and England went on to win the World Cup.

I almost lost my Italy job for that.
:(

My profile

And here you see my profile. Overall, I would say the stats seem pretty accurate although I'm not sure why my ambition score is so low

Temperament is low because when my team don't play well, I always give them what for. Even if they win, but have a poor performance, I will say I'm disappointed in them. And if they lose when they really should have won? Well, lets just say that Beckham would have had more than a plaster over his eye.

Professionalism is also only a ten because I love to gloat. If another manager has the temerity to rubbish my team (and this happens regularly despite the fact that I own the premiership), then I not only blast that manager but I sometimes gloat over them afterwards if I cream his team. Hey - don't bring the smacktalk if you can't handle it.
>:)

Bioshock back on the menu

Activation limits have been removed from BioShock.

Unfortunately, the DRM is still there. However, as I have said many times before, I am willing to put up with DRM as long as it isn't too draconian or too intrusive. With the activation limits removed, BioShock has just wandered into the "willing to put up with" category.

To be fair, at this point, I don't know if I will buy BioShock. This is a decision I will make when I finish with GTA IV and are looking out for my next game. Unfortunately for 2k, my eagerness for this game has long passed and it is entirely possible that by the time I buy a new game, there will be something newer which is getting all the press. However, the removal of the activation limits means that at the very least, I will consider buying it.

GTA IV - single player impressions

At last - I've finally played enough of the game that I'm now willing to give my impressions of the single player game. The short version is that the game is bloody good. If you have played and enjoyed any of the previous GTA games, then you will definitely like Rockstar's newest baby.

But where should I start for the long version? Rockstar have managed to pack so much into this game that at times, its ridiculous.

I guess the big highlight, and one of the GTA series biggest strengths, is the living breathing world that Rockstar have managed to create. As you probably already know, GTA IV is effectively set in New York. And the developers have really gone to a lot of trouble to create as much of New York in as realistic a detail as possible. Granted, I've never been to New York, but its amazing how familiar the architecture looks (bear in mind, my impression of New York comes from various movies and other video games!).

Of course, simply recreating the layout of New York isn't going to be enough. What Rockstar have managed to do is fill the city full of people. As you wander around, you hear people talking to each other (then exclaiming in anger as I push them aside - hehe). Dotted around the city are various street preachers, hot dog vendors, drunks, beggars and even the occasional junkie.

In addition to the people are all the things you can do. You can go for drinks, go to restaurants (either a nice fancy one or a quick burger at the local Burger Shot), go bowling, play darts or pool etc etc etc. And they all come into play at some time or another as one of the big themes in GTA IV is hanging out with friends.

Hanging out with friends has various benefits depending on the friend. If you get chummy enough with the friends, then you can unlock various special abilities. For example, you could get free taxi or helicopter rides around the city or buy guns for cheap. Hanging out with girlfriends is another example where you can get a nice payoff if you get popular enough with her.

The second big highlight for this game is the humour. Although you get the normal humour (for example, you can go to a comedy club and watch various comedians - including cameos by famous comedians such as Ricky Gervais), you also get a healthy does of satire. Littered throughout the game are various digs at real life which are great if you know what the developers are taking the piss out of. As a quick spoiler free example, if you get friendly enough with your girlfriend, you can get invited into her apartment which unlocks the "Warm coffee" achievement (an obvious dig at the hot coffee scandal).

The third big highlight is the story. Bear in mind that the last GTA game I played was GTA III which didn't have a voiced protagonist. I know that the GTA games have had a voiced protagonist since GTA III: Vice City and playing this game, its easy to see why. Having a voiced protagonist means that the main character actually has character! In GTA IV, the protagonist is an Eastern European called Niko Bellic and as the game progresses, you learn a lot about him through the various cut scenes and conversations he has with his friends. Admittedly, I'm probably biased on the topic of stories in games as the main reason I like playing video games is to take part in an interactive story (hence my preponderance for RPGs).

All in all, this game is packed full of stuff to do. At the moment, I'm making my way through the game very slowly as each night, I only play 1 or 2 missions. The rest of the time, I'm either going out on dates, hanging out with friends, hunting NYs most wanted criminals using a stolen cop car, going on helicopter tours (or stealing the chopper and devising my own tour) etc etc.

Is the game perfect? No - its not. And I don't just mean that in the "you never get a perfect game" sense. There are some obvious flaws which, for me, prevents GTA IV from getting the elusive 100% which so many websites have given it. The biggest one is still the on foot combat.

On foot combat has never been one of GTAs strengths. To be fair, Rockstar have made big improvements to the game engine in terms of how on foot combat works - despite this the combat is still not particularly great. The problem is that its hard to spot other enemies considering the distance most gunfights take place at. Luckily, the game sports an autolock feature so you can rely on that to spot bad guys for you. However, when on foot combat basically turns out to be shooting at far away blobs, it doesn't get particularly exciting.

The problem of spotting enemies is particularly bad at night. One mission in particular has you trying to shoot your way out of an old burnt out building at night. Because its a burnt out building, there aren't any lights so its pretty dark. The combat is all short range as you are wandering around the inside of the building. Sounds exciting right?

In practice, because its so dark, you can't actually see any enemies unless they are right in front of you (ie point blank range). This means that the gameplay revolves around shooting whenever the autolock locks onto something. This is less effective than you might think as the autolock will lock onto enemies hiding behind a wall (ie I'm shooting at a wall but don't know this as its pitch black).

The alternative to shooting at walls was to get closer so that you can actually see what you are shooting at. Of course, this strategy doesn't really work very well as all the cops are armed with shotguns. One on one, this isn't an issue as I can normally kill the blighter before he kills me. The problem is that there are loads of cops and after killing the first wave, I'm pretty low on health and an easy target for the second wave.

Don't get me wrong though, despite one or two flaws, this is still a great game and very easy to get yourself lost in.

Inventory management

After last weeks brief intermission on DRM, its now time for another intermission before we return to our regular scheduled program. Just in case you've forgotten, I was going to give my impressions of GTA IV. However, GTA IV is the kind of game which you really need to play for a while before being able to give any useful response so instead, I'll talk about inventory management in RPGs.

As I mentioned before, I have been playing through the original Baldurs Gate (plus expansion pack) using the BG2 engine (courtesy of mods). In the game, I was just about to enter the city of Baldurs Gate when I went on a slight detour and started to play the expansion pack instead (Tales of the Sword Coast). More specifically, I'm currently inside Durlags Tower and boy, is there a ton of treasure! In fact, there is so much treasure that my gem bag, potion case and bag of holding are all full (I installed a mod which allowed me to buy those).

Which is a real bummer because inventory management is not one of my favourite aspects of BG. I play RPGs for the characterisation, the story and the choices which I'm forced to make during the game. And when I say choices, I mean stuff like choosing between whether to save the hostages or sacrifice them in order to kill the terrorist.

Choosing between which piece of phat loot to leave behind because I'm already carrying too much other loot is not my idea of fun.

Mass Effect PC

I've posted before how much I enjoyed Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. This meant that I was very excited when it was announced that it would be released for the PC in May 2008 - finally, a chance for my non-console gamer friends to play this great action RPG.

And then this happens (more specifically, the second post in the forum).

I blogged several times in the past about how I hate DRM and think that it doesn't work. As I have said before, I realise that many companies won't agree and that they will implement some form of copy protection. I'm okay with this provided the DRM does not become intrusive. Unfortunately, the SecuRom system being implemented for Mass Effect PC just stepped over the line into being too obtrusive for me. Admittedly, it is a small step - but unfortunately, it was just enough to marginally push this title over the DRM line (for me, anyway).

For ME, the game will require you to register the CD key with EA's SecuRom servers in order to play. Thereafter, you will need to reauthorise the game every 10 days otherwise the game will not work (although the game will do this automatically if you have an internet connection). In other words, if you want to play Mass Effect, a single player action RPG with NO multiplayer component whatsoever, you will need an internet connection. WTF?!?!?

Considering the recent awareness and anti-DRM bias in the community, I'm sure it will come as no surprise when I tell you that the forums are in an uproar with loads of people posting that they will not buy the game. Loads of people are understandably pissed off that they need to check back with EA if it is okay for them to play their legally purchased game every 10 days.

I've been a fan of BioWare for many years (since the original Baldur's Gate a decade ago!). I love their RPGs and I love the fact that BioWare, as a company, seem to really listen to their fans. For example, their forums are a great place to go to because the developers also spend a lot of time there and you can interact with them (not many companies can make such a claim).

Because of this history, I'm not ready to renounce BioWare and all its future games yet (I already have Mass Effect on my X360 so I wouldn't have purchased the PC version in any event). As I said, this particular step over the DRM line is relatively small and I'm willing to wait and see how the end results play out before I condemn them. However, I really hope this works out well and that the DRM doesn't get any worse.

I guess what really disappoints me is that BioWare is one of the extremely rare examples of a company that produces games that I would be willing to buy at launch without first checking reviews - that is a measure of how much goodwill they had built up with me. However, any future purchases will only be after a period of waiting to see if there are any DRM problems.

UPDATE: woot woot! The 10 day re-authentication has now been scrapped. Obviously, I would prefer no DRM whatsoever - however, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV has been released and the reviews are so far, unbelievably positive. Its funny, my history with the GTA series isn't what you would call normal.

Despite being mega-hits (or at the least, extremely popular) since the original release of GTA on the PC, I never actually bought any of the GTA games at full price. I got both GTA and GTA2 on the PC for budget in 1 package numerous years after their release. Similarly, I got GTA3 and GTA: Vice City for my Xbox in a double package numerous years after their release.

In a way, GTA IV is breaking new ground with me as for once, not only did I not wait until years after release, but I actually paid a small premium to get the game!

Anyway, I'm going to go play the game now so look forward to some impressions on it next week.

Football Manager - 2019/20

I've just finished season 2019/20 in my Football Manager game.

Unlike my previous post regarding Football Manager, this season has been an unprecedented success. Not only did my Liverpool side win the Premiership (again) but I also managed to win the Champions League as well (I also won the Carling Cup but, does anyone care about that?). So what made 2019/20 such an "unprecedented success"?

Well for starters, the current win means that I have now won the Champions League for 3 seasons in a row. This is a new record for me as, despite all my years of playing this game in its many incarnations, I have never ever managed this before. In fact, in the past, I generally had trouble winning the Champions League at all - never mind winning it 3 times in a row!

A lot of the credit for my recent success goes to 1 player - Emiliano Rossi. At the end of 2015, one of my star strikers (Fernando Genro) decided that he would prefer to be a prima donna rather than a Liverpool player. So I sacked him. After he left, I had to rely on my other Brazilian superstar (Julio Cesar) to get most of my teams goals.

However, in 2017, I signed another prima donna (what can I say - I like taking risks!) - Emiliano Rossi. Rossi was an Italian whose contract was running out and I managed to sign him on a free transfer (gotta luv that guy Bosman!). Despite being a prima donna (early in his first season, he complained about the lack of games despite playing more games than any other striker!), he managed to settle down halfway through the first season - and when I say settle down, I mean he stopped complaining!

In terms of scoring goals, the guy scored on his debut and never stopped scoring. In his first season with us, he scored over 30 goals (Julio Cesar, my 30 year old Brazilian superstar scored more though!) and helped us win both the league and the Champions League. He followed up this magnificent debut season by scoring over 40 goals in his second season. By now, he was outscoring Julio Cesar and once again, my Liverpool side took top honors in both the league and the Champions League. Could he repeat in 2019/20?

In itself, the start of season 2019/20 was a new landmark for Liverpool. By now, Iker Casillas, my (very) old and reliable goalkeeper was 37 years old and too old to star in the first team every game. In fact, in 2018/19, he only played in half of the games and I had to rely on my backup goalkeeper a lot in order to keep Casillas in good shape that year. Luckily, my backup goalie was an English wonderkid (regen by the name of Dave Roberts) who I signed for megabucks and was now starting to show his worth.

I paid GBP30m for Casillas and considering how well he has played, he has proven to be worth every penny. However, he was now old and it was time for Dave Roberts to make the stepup to full time no. 1!

At the start of 2019/20, Dave didn't do very well. He made some silly mistakes which meant we got a couple of defeats and draws in the early part of the season. In fact, the only reason we didn't lose more matches was due to my superb strikeforce of Rossi and Cesar who continued to bang in the goals. After a couple of games, I started to put Casillas back in more often - things were that bad!

And then - 2 crucial injuries which helped to shape my season. Casillas picked up a long term injury! By now, the transfer window had closed and I had no choice but to put Dave into goal again. Luckily, this time, he was able to make the stepup to no.1 goalie. Although still prone to the occasional bad game, he managed to lift his performance and play like the goalie I knew he could be!

The second crucial long term injury was to Julio Cesar. My brazilian superstar was out for 3 months! The real killer blow about this injury though was the fact that even after Cesar returned to the first team, he just wasn't the same player anymore. He still scored goals - but nowhere near as many as he used to.
:(

It was now down to Rossi to pick up the slack. And he did this magnificently. In the current year, he managed to score 54 goals, 16 of which were in the Champions Cup. Fifty Four Goals!! And yes - this is a new record for me as well!

And the best part of winning the Champions League this year? Beating Betis in the final.

The last time my Liverpool team faced Betis was in the 2014/15 season where they beat me 1-0 in the Champions League final. At first, it looked like they were going to beat me again and repeat history. They scored an early goal against me and then their goalkeeper produced a marvelous display of drug induced goalkeeping to deny my strikers. However, in the end, Rossi was too much for him. Constant pressure from Rossi eventually paid dividends in the form of a late hat trick (all scored in the last 20 minutes) which gave us the game.

2019/20 was not a year for history to repeat itself. Too many records were being broken for that to happen!

Rainbow Six: Vegas - coop

Looking back at last weeks post, I just realised that I sound pretty negative about R6:V. I guess its worthwhile reiterating that I do think the multiplayer is quite good. The problem is just that it doesn't feel very tactical - which, in my opinion, is the strength of the R6 series in the first place.

Anyway, despite any perceived problems with the multiplayer, the coop in R6:V is excellent with just one proviso which I'll go into momentarily.

The great thing about coop gameplay is that it really does cater to R6's strengths. Just like in the singleplayer, you get rooms full of tango's which you and your squadmates can breach and clear to your hearts content. As I said, the key strength of the R6 series is the tactical nature of the combat and coop captures this beautifully.

At least it does, if you get the right team together (here's that proviso I mentioned!). While I have been in some good games, I've also been in some games with kids. And the problem with kids is that they just want to run around and shoot things. At this point, the game just turns into a run n gun FPS which kinda defeats the purpose. Having said that, you can't really blame the game for this.

When done properly, the feeling of you get from a good coop session is awesome and I'll try and capture it with a gameplay example below.

There were three of us in the group. Before the game started, we had discussed what ordinance each of us would be taking. Some of us had breaching charges (so we could blow in doors), some of us had smoke grenades (to provide cover), some of us had flashbangs and some of us had frags (I had the smoke and flashbangs). All in all, we had a fair mix of ordinance to play around with.

We start the game and by this time, we are already in Vegas. We get to a room with two doors and split into 2 teams - me on my own and the other two guys in the other team. Both of us snake cam each door and spot several tangos waiting inside and we quickly devise a plan of attack.

The guy with the breaching charge sets up the charge on my door before rejoining his teammate. We all setup shop by the side of the door and wait.

The team leader checks everybodys position before counting down. "1 .. 2 .. 3 .. Go go go!!"

The breaching charge by my door sets off and blows away the door. The guy standing behind the door is killed immediately and the rest of the room erupts into bedlam as the tangos dive behind cover. They immediately target my door as evidenced by the hail of bullets pouring through.

However, while the tango's are focusing on my door, the team leader has opened the second door. The third teammate pops out from behind the second door and starts to get some easy kills as all the tango's are focused on my door. The room erupts into chaos for a second time as the tangos shift cover and start firing at my teammate by the second door.

This is the perfect opportunity for me to pop out from behind the first door and take out the remaining bad guys. Perfectly planned. Perfectly executed.

Stardock is full of smart people

Wow - two gaming posts in one weekend. What is happening!!

Basically, I saw this post and it resonated with me so much that I had to talk about it.

By way of background, I used to be a heavy PC gamer. I used to have flight sticks and steering wheels etc for my PC. And the majority of my games were played on the PC. In fact, I have too many memories of PC gaming to recount here. But somewhere along the way, I changed and became primarily a console gamer. So what happened?

If you read the link and some of the comments in that post above, you will know exactly what happened. The cost and hassle of keeping my PC in a gaming state together with the hassles of DRM just made me stop and think "why am I putting up with this crap?". Yes, I know how to update my drivers (or restore old drivers). I know how to take apart my PC and upgrade individual components. I know how to check forums to see whether there is a known fix for whatever issue I'm having. What I don't have is the time or inclination to do so.

Despite this, there are still games on the PC which consoles just can't or don't do well. As a result of this, I do still buy and play PC games. However, I tend to be extremely picky when it comes to PC games. And as I have mentioned before, DRM is one of the factors I take into consideration (to be clear, I understand why most games have DRM and I am willing to put up with it as long as it remains unobtrusive).

Most publishers talk about piracy being the death of PC gaming and use this to justify DRM. Stardock (publisher of Galactic Civilizations II and the new PC hit strategy game Sins of a Solar Empire) is one of the few developers/publishers who understands that piracy isn't the problem. In fact, they put their money where their mouth is and don't put any DRM (none whatsoever!) in the software they sell.

Considering that Sins of a Solar Empire was the number 2 best selling PC game for February in the US (bear in mind the NPD only tracks retail sales hence the online sales of this game are ignored - which is a shame as Stardock make a lot of sales online), Stardock seem to have the right approach.

Rainbow Six: Vegas - multiplayer

Last week, I mentioned that I was playing R6:V and gave a single player gameplay example. I also took the opportunity to test out the multiplayer which is what this post is about.

One of the cool things about the multiplayer is that you create your character and then get to decide what equipment that he will have. In addition, you also get to decide what clothes and armor he will wear. As you start, you only have very limited options. However, as you play more games and level up your character, some of the better equipment will unlock.

The great thing about this is that it really allows you to invest in your online persona. At the same time, even the "lesser" weapons are extremely lethal and can kill other players very easily. Given all this, you would think that I really enjoyed the multiplayer. Unfortunately, I didn't.

To be fair to R6:V, its not that the multiplayer is bad. The problem is that the multiplayer is so disconnected from the single player. Let me explain.

In my opinion, the key strength of R6:V is in the tactical nature of its single player game. This is very different from other FPSs on the market and is one of the key differentiators for this game. However, when you get into the multiplayer game, the game effectively devolves into a run and gun FPS. Although you can still use the tactics and equipment from the single player game, there just isn't any point as its more effective to keep on the move.

And this is what I mean when I say that the multiplayer is disconnected from the single player. The reason I like this game is because I like the slow tactical buildup element in planning out an assault on a room and then executing on that plan. Unfortunately, that just isn't how the multiplayer game works. It's like the multiplayer game is a different game altogether.

And this is where we run into problems. First off, the expectations gap means that R6:V isn't off to a good start. Throw in the fact that Halo 3 has since been released which does multiplayer run and gun superbly (in my opinion) and it doesn't look like R6:V has any legs left to stand on. As I said before, its not that the multiplayer is bad. In fact, its actually quite good. The problem is that after playing a couple of multiplayer games, I just couldn't help but think, "Why aren't I playing Halo 3?"

Rainbow Six: Vegas

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 has just been released which is good for me. Not because I wanted to buy it but because I suspect it lead to Rainbow Six: Vegas becoming a Platinum Hit. Don't worry if you aren't familiar with the term, all you need to know is that R6:V is currently available for the budget price of HK$190. Cheap!!

My first exposure to Rainbow Six was actually via the original novel written by Tom Clancy (thats right - I don't just play video games!). It was a great novel and a very clever idea. Basically, Rainbow Six is the code name for an international anti-terrorist unit which is given special training. And if you think that sounds like a great plot idea for a game, then you aren't the only one!

Like other Tom Clancy branded games, Rainbow Six: Vegas focuses on realism. Basically, if you try and run around like in other FPSs, your going to go down under a hail of bullets very quickly! R6:V is very much about careful considered action. Move your team into place, select which tango's you want them to take out, and then breach in and clear the room! Just like real anti-terrorist units (I suspect)!

So how does that actually translate into gameplay? Sounds like a perfect lead in for a single player gameplay example!

My team of elite anti-terrorists get to a door. Using the Snake Cam, I peer under the door and see two tango's (Tango = T = terrorist) - one just to the left of the door and one just to the right of the door. I order my two teammates to stack up on the door and get ready. Meanwhile, I head off to the side door and take cover right next to door.

I open the side door while still in cover. The two tangos immediately spot the open door and start moving towards me slowly - guns firmly trained on the open door. Their thinking is that if I dare to show my face, they will blow it off! However, as the second tango passes the first door, I order my team to Breach and Clear.

The breach command is basically to put a small breaching charge on the door. The breaching charge blows the door in (pity anyone standing behind the door!) and allows the team to then rush in through the open door. Did I mention before that I waited until the second tango was in front of the door before I ordered the breach and clear?
>:)

The doors blow in and take out the second tango. The first tango turns around to shoot at the incoming R6 members. At this point, I pop out of cover and cap the first tango in the back of the head. Perfectly planned and executed!

I love it when a plan comes together!

Never Surrender!!

Time for another Halo 3 video. The video below is also taken from one of my early games of straight deathmatch (or Slayer as Halo 3 calls it). By the way, in case you are wondering, the video is highly edited as there were only 3 players hence a lot of time was spent running around looking for the other guys!

Also, I uploaded the video twice - once in Blogger and once in YouTube. The advantage of YouTube is that you can go to YouTube and view the video in fullscreen (although the resolution isn't very good). The reason I uploaded twice is so that I can see which one loads quicker. Let me know which version you prefer and I will stick to that version in future.

Anyway, I started off this game really badly and before long, I was down by 15:6 (ie I had 6 kills while the leader had 15). At the time, I remember looking at the score and thinking "Man, I'm crap!".

Despite the shitty score though, I never gave up. And somehow, I started to fight my way back into the game. During my comeback, I managed to get 2 Killing Spree's (a killing spree is getting 5 kills without dieing) and 2 double kills to tie up the game.

By far the best part of the comeback came at the end. With approx 10 seconds till the end of the game, I'm still down by 1 kill. At this point, I'm running across an open platform when someone starts shooting at me from above. I immediately deploy a bubble shield to try and hide in. Unfortunately, the guy is a lot closer than I realised and he runs into the bubble shield and assasinates me from behind. Now, I'm down by 2 kills and thinking "this game is over".

However, I respawn close to where I died and notice the other two guys having a shoot-out in the open platform area. With literally seconds to go, I chuck a grenade and wade into the fight. Amazingly, I managed to get a double kill and tie the game at 22 kills just before the game ends!!

As you can imagine, I was so pumped up at this point that all I could do was jump around the living room screaming like a madman! In fact, the only reason I stopped was because the missus came out and gave me hell for making so much noise!!

PS Not sure when my next video will be. The grab function in http://www.geevee.com/ (which is what I used to transform my Halo 3 clips into video) has been down for a month for upgrades and there is no timetable for when it will come back up.

D&D cRPG

As I mentioned in my other blog post, Gary Gygax has passed away. I put some recollections of my PnP days in my other post but I wanted to share some cRPG memories in this blog.

D&D computer role playing games have been around for years. I think the earliest computer games based on D&D would be the Gold Box games released by SSI (nevermind the endless games which were inspired by D&D!). Although I have a friend who grew up playing these Gold Box games, I never really spent that much time on them.

The first thing I think of whenever I think D&D cRPG is Baldur's Gate. Just to be clear, BG wasn't the first D&D cRPG I played - but it is the first one I think of. Although cRPGs had been very popular, by 1998, the genre as a whole was starting to die out. Not many new cRPGs were being developed and most gamers had moved onto other genres.

BG was released in 1998 and single-handedly revived the cRPG genre. It managed to perfectly capture the excitement and feel of playing D&D. It even had multiplayer and my friend and I would pop online in the evenings to play whenever we got the chance. By 1998, I had entered the workplace and PnP D&D was a thing of the past - you can imagine how excited I was to be able to recapture some of my past while sitting at my PC at home!

What makes the infinity engine (developed by BioWare and used in BG) so amazing is that the engine itself is so customisable. Recently, I've been replaying the original BG lately but using the highly improved BG2:ToB engine and with the addition of a banter pack mod (which makes the NPCs more talkative). Even if I get bored, there are tons of other mods that I could install.

Considering that this game was released a decade ago, it's incredible how much fun it still is.

Ambushtastic

An ambushtastic video of Halo 3 below (also known as How I learned to love the shield drainer).

The video starts with me blowing someone away (with an effective use of the grenade to help take down his shields). After he dies, I pick up his shield drainer. For those who haven't played Halo 3, the shield drainer does exactly what it says on the tin. It drains the shields of anyone who enters the area making it extremely easy to kill them.

Armed with my new shield drainer, I reload and head off in search of prey.

As I come up to the building (around the 15 sec mark), I notice a red dot on my rader so I know an enemy is close. I move into the side of the building and prep my ambush. Of course, the other guy will have seen me on the radar too. However, he doesn't know that I have the shield drainer.

Just before he pops out, I throw out the shield drainer right in front of the building exit. He walks right into it. Without shields, he falls prey to a burst from my assault rifle. However, imagine my surprise when I pick up another shield drainer off his corpse! Perfect - time to find more prey.

However, I am spotted on the ridge and it becomes a mad dash as I try to get into cover before I get killed. Luckily, the other guy is a really bad shot and keeps missing...

I get into cover behind the rocks, quickly reload before popping out the other side of the rocks. Another judicious use of the shield drainer is just enough to give me the edge and finish him off.
:)

The return of Halo 3

Its been a while since I posted about Halo 3. The primary reason for this is that I have been spending an inordinate amount of time playing Mass Effect (awesome game!). However, I recently started playing Halo 3 again and made a startling discovery. There is now a website online (geevee) that will convert Halo 3 video clips into normal video clips!

And thus begins an all new era of boredom on my gaming blog as I share video clips of my Halo 3 games!
:p

Anyway, to kick start things, I will go back in history and give you a video of my first ever kill in Halo 3. Actually, as I mentioned before, the guy actually killed himself using his own grenade. Still, the game registered it as my kill. :)

And here is another video of my first kill - this time taken from a different angle. In this video, you can see more clearly the grenade suicide by my opponent.