I was recently asked to contribute a piece of writing for my friend Rob’s GI Festival project. I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while and thought it would be a good idea to post my contribution here, just to show I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet.

By way of an introduction to the piece I should give you a bit of background. Rob and I grew up together, sharing a passion for music. I’m a non-musician, so my creative frustrations have always been tempered by making mix tapes/CDs for friends and subsequently a tumblr blog.

Last year Rob and I were chatting about a multi-cassette compilation I put together when we were teenagers. I told him that I’d been putting together an equally ambitious compilation about space travel. Some months later he told me he’d been thinking about out conversation and wondered if I’d like to contribute a piece of writing for his art project, based around the themed compilation I’d mentioned. The end product is what you see below.

Read on »

I tend to read a lot of PR and marketing output for my job as an industry writer. I tend also to get rather uptight about the amount of psycho-dynamic language used to inspire me to jot a few words on the site. So, here’s my challenge to you…

Read the following without entering a blissful state of utter non-excitement. I’ll be adding to the list as soon as I can calm down. I am also excited to receive any additions that you might want to make in the comments.
Read on »

A review of the Thai restaurant: Siam House, 63A Goodramgate, YO1 7LS, England: Let’s start with the fact that there were no salads on the menu. At least I couldn’t find one.

A Thai restaurant with no Som Tam? Seriously? Yes indeed. So, we opted for the vegetarian mixed opener, which turned out to be deep-fried stuff with two tiny dipping sauces that I assume came from the local cornershop.
Read on »

Kitty is not gormless. You believe in her.

My industry is the video games industry – but I am absolutely certain that what follows (an attempt to flog things masked in heavy-handed irony) occurs in all sorts of other industries. This particular piece of flogging comes from that bastion of marketing dedication, The Guinness World Records.

Let me begin with a quote from the press release that accompanies this incredible image of lovely being used to flog the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition:

“Suggested Photo Caption: Iowa’s Elizabeth Bolinger, AKA Kitty McScratch, where she earned the title for ‘Most Prolific Dancing Game High Scorer’ with top scores in over 85 songs spanning across the Dance Central and Just Dance franchises. She’s featured in the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition out now. (Photo Credit Ryan Shude/Guinness World Records)”.

That is correct, it’s a suggested photo caption to be used in the event that you’re really, really incredibly lazy as well as brain dead enough to run an actual story about the kind of book that does indeed introduce to the world a record for…

“Most Prolific Dancing Game High Scorer”

Yes, if you ever need to be able to win a discussion of things that are not only not needed ever, by anyone, ever and which in fact take goodness, energy, honesty and hope out of the world, you can just say:

“Iowa’s Elizabeth Bolinger, AKA Kitty McScratch, who is ‘long-time fan of the Guinness World Records books’ and who ‘was first introduced to video games in the early 90’s by her father, who was immersed in the world of casual PC gaming.’

Don’t thank me. Thank Kitty McScratch and the  Guinness World Records.

Cheer up everybody!

Television, radio, the newsreels ,  newspapers, preachers and priests used worry you about things. Now Twitter and Facebook make you concerned about things that you don’t need to be concerned about.

This is nothing new. You don’t need to worry.

Many of the things you think you need to be concerned about, you don’t need to be concerned about. Here are some recent ones:

• Jeremy Clarkson says something about the public service strikes on The One Show on television. You really can just ignore this. It means nothing at all and will reoccur not matter what you do.
• Sunderland football club sacks a manager and hires a new one. Again not need to worry about this. It will happen again soon.
• Cocaine found on 11% of UK notes – Pfft.
• Ricky Gervais and people with dwarfism – he keeps changing his mind and has gone off the boil. Never mind, a new comedian will be along soon.
• Hipsters on ‘fixies’ – stop being concerned, the fashion will pass.

Bread - stoneground + plain

First one was a basic 1/3 white + 2/3 stoneground. I used olive oil rather than butter and brown sugar rather than caster. I over-kneeded it but it’s not too shabby.

Second one was reverse with the flour and was aimed as a sweeter ‘bread’ so had more sugar. It also used lemon zest, fresh thyme and fresh ginger and was based on Red Stripe beer.

“Three is the magic number”, the hippies used to say, and in many respects this is true of Shadows of the Damned. Grasshopper Manufacture’s recent action horror title is the product of the combined pedigree of Goichi “Suda51″ Suda (Killer7, No More Heroes), Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, God Hand) and Akira Yamaoka (Snatcher, Silent Hill 2).

When three individuals with such strong artistic visions come together, there’s always the danger that the final product can be less than the sum of its parts. One only has to look at the world of popular music and see the long and rather wretched line of heavyweight collaborations that fail to live up to billing. Fortunately, I’m pleased to say that this veritable supergroup of developers manages, on the most part, to deliver; each one’s contribution is unmistakably their own, yet everything fits together to form a cohesive end product.

Suda 51’s videogames-as-punk-rock aesthetic is borne out through the main protagonist, Garcia Hotspur, a hard as nails, leather clad demon hunter, and even more prominently by the puerile humour, ghost-train horror narrative and irreverent script, which has an Evil Dead goofiness to it rather than any psychological horror aspirations. It’s a rescue the girl caper as Garcia heads off into a deranged underworld accompanied by Johnson, a floating skull with an upper-class English accent, to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend from the malevolent demon-lord, Fleming. As Garcia and Johnson make their way through this warped reimagining of hell, they must battle a plethora of demons. Fortunately Johnson has the ability to change into a variety of weapons that can be used to stem the never-ending tide of hellish denizens.

The combat is where Mikami’s influence and the game’s Resident Evil 4 DNA are plain to see, with Shadows of the Damned sharing Resi 4’s over the shoulder view point and control scheme. Unfortunately, it lacks its esteemed predecessor’s polish, with the controls at times being needlessly awkward and frustrating. Occasional control issues aside, it’s still a lot of fun. Pulling off headshots is particularly satisfying; slowing the action down and zooming the camera in on the visceral consequences of your sharp-shooting. Other hints at the game’s lineage include Christopher, the yokel demon salesman who recalls Resi 4’s fondly remembered Merchant. His intermittent appearances offer brief respite and a chance to upgrade Johnson’s firepower.

The pulping of demons is broken up with the occasional puzzle and basic strategic play. The latter is focussed predominantly on Johnson’s light shot ability, which can momentarily freeze players and also comes in handy when the game throws “The Darkness” into the mix. This crepuscular mechanic drains Garcia’s health and can only be stopped by using the light-shot to shoot the golden goat heads scattered around the landscape. Although the use of The Darkness and infrequent puzzle elements add nothing groundbreaking, they add a nice variation to the gameplay.

The minute-to-minute action is broken up further by several sections that involve manoeuvring a paper cut-out of Garcia through rudimentary 2D landscapes. From a gameplay perspective they will not show your average gamer anything new, but they are executed with the playful charm that permeates the game. Also shaking things up are the obligatory boss battles the player will face. This is where the game arguably most disappoints. As whilst being memorable from a visual perspective, they lack wit and invention in challenging the player to defeat them. The key to defeating the majority being a simple case of shooting garishly obvious weak spots – a little passé in 2011.

To this reviewer, the true hero of Shadows of the Damned is Akira Yamaoka. His soundtrack is simply stunning, showing off his knack for flitting between styles with a dizzying proficiency. Whilst it doesn’t hit the lofty heights of his haunting Silent Hill 2 soundtrack –still in my mind the greatest video game soundtrack of all time – Yamaoka manages to conjure forth chilly electronica, raucous punk-rock and playful latino guitar riffs, all masterfully capturing the essence of the game and the characters which inhabit it.

It’s the game’s lack of anything particularly fresh or groundbreaking, and at times awkward controls, which stopsShadows of the Damned being a truly great title. The personnel involved in creating this title undoubtedly give the game a distinct charm and personality. However, it also raises gamers’ expectations. Having produced some of the most influential games of the last ten years, I don’t think it would be amiss to want and indeed expect the developers to raise the bar higher. It would of course be unfair to dismiss the game purely because it’s not the next great evolutionary step in the art of video game development. Ultimately, Shadows of the Damned is a fresh IP that’s an enjoyably entertaining roller –coaster ride, featuring a memorable protagonist and supporting cast. If you can forgive the rough edges, this is a game well worth further investigation.

Oh, and what a soundtrack.

This piece originally appeared over at http://game-bit.net/

When it’s out, as a flash game… for web browsers… one day… maybe.

Not now, of course, but one day. Probably in about 100 years time or something.

Also… look at this:

So, hands up who bought a 3DS. Go on, all the way up. Okay, you can carry on with what you’re doing. This here article is for those of you still living the 2D dream, those of you looking for some RPG action with an Eastern flavour for that trusty little DS of yours. You interested? Yeah? Okay, gather ‘round…

Now some people will say that the JRPG is dead. And some people will say there have been no decent JRPGs this generation. Both of these statements are, I’m happy to point out, utter bilge. Admittedly, it’s a genre with what we can politely call idiosyncrasies and quirks that may put some off. Foibles that can send even those blessed with Zen like calm into fits of rage. I mean, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve screamed into the nearest pillow after being kicked – KICKED HARD – by the hoary old JRPG.

Anyway, as I was saying…

That whole “JRPG is dead” thing is a fallacy. They’re not dead, they just chose new pastures from which to entertain us.  Yeah, that’s right. It’s the handheld where this much maligned genre has found succour. The reasons for this? Well, I can think of two main reasons. Firstly, from a financial point of view it’s relatively cheap. As technology evolves and becomes ever more sophisticated, the cost of development spirals accordingly. Producing big budget JRPGs full of the cinematic bombast we’ve become accustomed to is simply not commercially viable. Unless you’re a big hitter such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Shin Megami Tensei you’re going to find it hard to shift the units to recoup those millions upon millions of Yen you’ve burned in development.

Other than commercial viability another factor that springs to mind is simply the lay of the land. Gamers’ tastes have changed regarding what they play on the consoles sat under their tellies. The high-end consoles, namely the Xbox 360 and PS3 are capable of handling the gargantuan Western role-players formerly exclusive to PC gamers. The likes of BioWare and Bethesda have been able to steal the hearts of console RPG fans with their sophisticated wares. This is compounded by the fact that on the whole the genre has failed to evolve. Whilst the WRPG still feels fresh to your average console gamer, the evolutionary paralysis that grips most Japanese RPG developers dictates that creaking mechanics of a bygone era still reign supreme – something gamers, in the West at least, have had a bellyful of.

Woh, there. This is treading into epitaphic waters. I know, I know, this is supposed to be a positive piece. Before I started chewing the fat over the state of the genre I was telling you that the JRPG is alive and mostly well on the handheld console. Below are the four DS titles I think most worthy of checking out if you haven’t already.

Chrono Trigger DS
Okay, this is technically an old game. I was finishing my GCSEs when it appeared on the SNES back in March 1995. I didn’t see a copy until later that Autumn as the North American release didn’t appear until that summer and back then it was trickier to get hold of games from overseas. That’s right, this never got a Euro release – either on SNES or on the PlayStation port that appeared four years later.

Now anyone who was fortunate enough to have played this back when it first appeared will tell you that this was a high watermark for the genre. Developed by Square, whose staff were at the peak of their creative powers, Chrono Trigger has everything; an epic narrative that spans thousands of years and several dimensions, a varied cast of characters you actually care about, a fun combat system and multiple endings. The game follows the exploits of Crono and his band of companions as they endeavour to save the world from the evil Lavos. As mentioned, the story takes the adventurers across many centuries and alternate dimensions, each with their own separate story arc that cleverly ties into the bigger picture. The DS version is arguably the definitive version in that it adds a New Game + mode and several new quests. If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger I implore you to do so. The game has stood the test of time well and will provide a rewarding experience that many, more modern titles struggle to match.

Dragon Quest IX
No one needs an introduction to Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky. Nintendo did a pretty good job, via slightly creepy X-Factor berks “Jedward”, of ramming the game down our throats. At the time I derided Nintendo’s cynical marketing campaign. The idea of “The Jedward” grinding an old-school JRPG for 70 plus hours seemed frankly ridiculous. In hindsight, however, I applaud them. You see, they managed to get one of the DS’s most hardcore titles into millions of homes.

Level-5’s second Dragon Quest title (following the stunning VIII on the PS2) is essentially a series of vignettes sewn together by a tale of a (literally) fallen angel charged with collecting a number of celestial fruit. The fruit has fallen into mortal hands, wreaking havoc in the many locales your hero travels to. Although not the greatest narrative in relation to other Dragon Quests, the varied cast of NPCs and locations in which they are found keep things engaging. Anyway, you’ll get most of your enjoyment from building up your team, each member having a vocation which grants them unique skills.

Make no bones about it, Dragon Quest IX is a beast, a veritable leviathan of a game. It’s absolutely massive. There are hundreds upon hundreds of hours of gameplay on offer here. Firstly, the main game itself can take upward of seventy hours to finish. Not only that, the game includes a plethora of treasure maps which require some serious levelling to best their dungeons’ bosses. Then there are the various vocations on offer to the player and his squad, each requiring a good degree of grinding to take full advantage of. To top it off, once you’ve finished with the single player experience you can even take the game online to play with others. Seriously, this game is massive – and tough too. The game will happily punish poor player preparation, removing half your stash of total gold and sending you back to the beginning of a dungeon. Definitely do not be fooled by the cutesy art-direction and playfully colloquial localisation!

Radiant Historia
Developed by Atlus, of Shin Megami Tensei fame, Radiant Historia arrived on DS in the US earlier this year. The game follows the exploits of special agent, Stocke and his friends who become embroiled in the battle between their native country and their bitter enemy, neighbours Granorg. Radiant Historia riffs on Chrono Trigger’s time travel mechanic superbly. The plot crsiss-crosses between two main timelines, with the player having to dart backwards and forwards with the aid of a mysterious tome, resolving plot points that enable progress at later points in both timelines. In addition to the wonderfully dizzying plot, the game’s combat is also superb. The enemies appear on a 3×3 grid with the player having to cue attacks. The longer the chain of attacks the quicker enemies are dispensed with and the more XP is awarded at the end of battle. This adds an almost puzzle element to the game and stringing a big combo together is extremely satisfying.

Unfortunately, the game hasn’t had a European release.  This is probably because Atlus don’t have a European presence, with a lot of their games being published in this region by the likes of British publisher Ghostlight. Fortunately, importing games is a lot easier these days and with the DS being region-free, playing this game should be relatively hassle free. There are a number of reputable North American sites who will happily ship to our shores so you’ve got no excuse not to play this excellent title.

Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver
Okay, for a lot of gamers in their twenties, a new Pokémon game is a no questions asked day one purchase. They were at the right age in the mid-nineties to form an emotional attachment with the franchise. Pokémon’s surge in popularity at the time was part of their childhood; the cartoon, the lunchbox and of course, the original Game Boy title. In contrast there are a lot of older gamers who view Pokémon games as childish fare, simply that videogame of that annoying cartoon that used to be on years ago. Now, I don’t mind admitting that until about a year ago I was one of the latter – and how wrong I was. Pokémon may be chock full of cute, nonsensical beasts with equally nonsensical names but don’t let that fool you, as like Dragon Quest IX this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yes, under the fluffy surface Pokémon HeartGold / SoulSilver is a brutally addictive collect ‘em up fused with a deceptively deep RPG.

The aim of the game is to become the best Pokémon trainer in the land. To do this the player must battle other Pokémon trainers as they traverse the large game world. Along the way your trainer collects wild Pokémon which can be trained to fight in your team of four. Unlike other JRPGs the player does not level up, each individual Pokémon does, and at certain levels, your Pokémon will evolve, granting them a wider selection of special moves. The battles are essentially rock-paper-scissor affairs and the skill is to create a balanced team to go into battle with. The sheer number of Pokémon you are able to collect means that hundreds of hours can be spent collecting, training and organising your team. And of course, once the collecting bug bites it’s really easy to find yourself saying; “I gotta catch ‘em all”.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Pokéwalker, a pedometer like device that comes with the game. You can transfer a single Pokémon to the Pokéwalker and fight and capture random Pokémon on your travels and discover random items too. The more steps you take the better the Pokémon you can attempt to snare and the better the items there are to discover. That’s not all. Each time you transfer a Pokémon to the device and then back to the DS it will level up by one level. That means you can continue to cultivate your collection of Pokémon even when you don’t have your DS with you. Neat.

Honourable mentions:

The World Ends With You – Set in contemporary Japan, this Square Enix title is a feast of Japanese pop culture and makes full use of the DS’s touch controls.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – A sci-fi dungeon crawler in which the player has the somewhat novel option of negotiating with the demons they encounter.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time & Bowser’s Inside Story – The Mario and Luigi RPGs are all of a high standard, with Superstar Saga being one of the GBA’s best titles. The DS games or of a similar standard; full of playful humour and typical Mario charm. The battle system in both games is particularly satisfying, utilising a clever rhythm action based mechanic.

This piece originally appeared over at http://game-bit.net/