Games to be declared M.I.A.

We're coming up and out of the slump called summer and into this wonderful thing called the "Holiday Season" aka, Autumn and Winter. If there is a worthwhile purchase to be made, it will be done here. Now, we KNOW what is coming out for these months, these dates have been nailed down but, a more interesting question is what WON'T we be seeing any time soon and try to establish where they are at currently. Duke Duken forever (and ever and ever and ever...) aside, what's hot products are frozen in time:

Splinter Cell: Convinction

Ah, Splinter Cell. You're black-and-white stealth mechanics made for a brilliant experience for those blessed with the gift of patience and you were fortunate enough to notice them becoming stale, unlike other developers in the past (read as EA). Light and dark is released to crowd blending mechanics and Sam Fisher, no longer an NSA agent or even a Double Agent, on the run for one reason or another. Like the brilliant Hitman series. However, SC:C has now become like a girlfriend who really doesn't care about you. You had those really great times together, stuck together through the smooth and the rough gradually before the calls just stopped coming and you were left wondering how you ended up at this point.

Current Status: A few claims of a Q2 2009 release from a while back is about it. It's worrying that such a high profile game, nah, franchise like SC is getting so little time in the sun. Apparently they've had to go back to the drawing board so you can expect that date to shift. I'm now less worried about when the game is come but what state it's in. Advice to Ubisoft? Get in touch with the boys at IO. Sure, they screwed up Kane and Lynch but the mechanics in Hitman are exactly what you should be aiming for but on a bigger scale.

Alan Wake
Challenging Splinter Cell for "New Biggest Joke in Games" crown, or maybe even the current holder, Mr. A. Wake (for those who have spent the last 3 years trying to work out the pun) has been absent from just about every gaming event since TGS... 2006. Not to say that we have not been without information there's been more than one apology over the delay. I think we're at a six count here. From what footage and other information has been revealed, none of which tells us how it will be playable, is saying that it's Silent Hill meets the Shining.

Is it time to get up: No. Quite simply. This one isn't getting started in any way. Promo flyers told us that we could be seeing it at TGS 08 ended up being flyers from a year ago. That's how bad things have gotten with this game. In April we were told the media blackout wouldn't be much longer and there have been some mag features but other than that, nothing. It's even having a knock on effect with Max Payne 3, originally a Remedy product, rumoured to be shifting back to Rockstar due to the work being done on Alan. To Remedy, I hope if and when this is released it was worth it and end up with a product you're proud to have worked for so damn long on.


White Knight Chronicles

It's not all about Xbox MIA's, oh no, there are some PS3 ones too. White Knight, or "Shirokishi Monogatari" for you Japanophiles out there, was annouced back when the PS3 hype was at it's peak. That's right, before it's, and the Wii's, launch. Since then, we've not nessacrily been drip fed more than scrounged like hungry hyenas for information on what could be an FF beating title. Result- uuuhhhh, not much. It's worrying when the official website hasn't been updated since July, 2007. There have been some shots of a town upon the back of a turtle and other equally impressive visuals but not alot else. No footage since TGS07 either

When's levelling up: Another grey date of the end of Q4 08 (that's March to us common people). It's also rumoured to be at this year's TGS (which makes sense as that as that was when it was last spotted). Seriously Sony, why aren't you getting behind this? It's an exclusive game that looks freakin' fantastic and has the potential to actually show what you're machine does! Finger out, now!


Ghostbusters

Upon searching for big Wii titles to hit delays (and moving through the mountains of shovelware to include Wii Fitness and Wii Excercise. No joke, they're there... disturbingly), I decided that there were no already annouced future big titles, which swings both ways in the fan boy war, and will instead talk about Ghostbusters.

Why? Well, with Activision/Vivendi merger, this game has been dropped by the publisher. To which I mentally and verbally said, "Waht?!" This is a fully licensed game from one of the biggest movie franchises of the late '80s - early '90s. Dan Akyroyd and Harold Ramis writing. Bill Murray's likeness and voice. You've been given a license to essentially print money if it's done right. So you drop it? It didn't meet the Acti-Blizz standards along with a number of other sierra products including Brutal Legend (Jack Black in alternate Psychonauts inspired rock-iverse = surely win?) and left with dying stars, Crash and Spyro and promising Prototype. My main punt at why these games have survived is the potential sequels.

When's it gonna call: 2009? Maybe? To be fair, it's been having good coverage up until recently and it looks half decent, with the prospect of wielding a proton pack with the Wiimote too tantalising to bear. Sony are rumoured, a word I use bluntly, to be publishing this as they have the movie rights but, luckily Sony Pictures (and not SCE) are looking for a publisher. With the anniversary coming up, blu ray movie special editon? Again, it's on you Sony.


These are just 4 big ones that stick in the fore front of my mind. I'm certain there are plenty more where those game from. If I missed out any important ones you want me to cover, I am more than happy to revisit this topic.

Are the dice finally in Sony's hands

After a solid 2 years of the Internet telling Sony how much it's having it's ass handed to it by Microsoft's hardcore crowd and Nintendo's mainstream assault, Sony have the chance to strike back come October and it's all down two 3 words. Or is it one?

Littlebigplanet.

The game has probably seen more hype shoved behind it than Halo 3 and more potential than Portal. We've all heard the talk; Littlebig for the win, Sackboy for president and even as an entertaining way to rally off Sony stats but these last two months, Sony and Media Molecule need to get their heads down and shut the hell up.The best way to kill any game is over hyping, particularly with the critics.

Metal Gear Solid 4* is the great example with the concept of nowhere to hide, giving us visions of fully destructable environements, being quickly reduced to hiding in plain sight, merely a (technically sound) reworking of MGS3's camo system and a team mechanic which was dropped for latter stages. Or, if you want a better example of hype over kill, Haze.

Lesson for today? It's fine to say that you're game is great and show it off because if you don't, you'll get another Okami but hold off one saturating the market with promos until those precious sales figures get in.

*Note: Love MGS4, honest :)

Do Wii still care about Nintendo's all conquering machine?

The Wii. You love it, the ladies love it, the media love it and, hell, even politicians love it. But after been out on the market for nearly 2 years now, the question has to be asked, does it really deserve are love? For the Wii, in spite of all it's brilliance, has been failing to aspire of late although they are still harder to get a hold of than a greased up monkey.

So, why the disappointment? The main reason is that of the much lauded Wiimote motion sensing technology. Since it burst onto the scene, it's changed the way that we think of playing games and Wii Sports, bundled with the Wii as almost a tech demo, has provided hours of fun for, if they adverts are to be believed, grannies and young sex women the world over.

And then what happened? No seriously, what happened? Copies of Wii Sports have gone dusty and the number of titles that use the motion sensing as a pivotal gameplay mechanic has severly dropped off. Who's to "blame" for this? Nintendo. No, seriously, it's been rather interesting when you have a good look at the Wii's titles up close, particularly when comparing first and thrid party games.

Look at what awesome games have been released on it so far by Nintendo: Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Meteroid Prime 3, Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Alright, now compare the brilliant thrid party games: Zak and Wiki, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, No More Heroes, Resident Evil 4 and Boom Blox.

Now, with a few exceptions to the rule, it seems that in a weird twist of fate, the notorious 3rd party Nintendo titles have tried to do something fresh, innoative and exciting with the Wiimote's technology rather than having it require extra bits to play it "properly" or even just optional use. Even Wii Fit needs to have a balance board attached with it and MKW has the Wii Wheel.

As for optional use, it's alright with Mario Kart and it works well with Zelda but many reviews of Smash Bros have gone as far as telling you to not even bother using the Wiimote itself with Official Nintendo Magazine stating, "Quite simply, no" with the controls of the 'mote-nunchuk combo all over the place.

Now, certainly there ARE good titles by Nintendo that make full use of the Wiimote's capabilities and there are (a HELL of a lot of) bad ones by thrid parties but I just feel that despite Nintendo creating the motion sensing Wii, that they aren't taking complete advantage of making fresh titles, leading the way in it's development and instead using the motion sensing as a little add on to big games, making it as useful as Sixaxis, with this article also a relevance to Sony and their DIRE support of Sixaxis.

Let's hope Nintendo prove me wrong and I really do invite them to do so make the TECHNOLOGY, not the IDEA of the Wii as sucessful as the DS. Hopefully, upcoming Sam and Max, Okami and whatever hidden Nintedo title Reggie has hidden away continue with the Wiimote's brilliance.

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HTG Out

Why Metal Gear Solid 4 must succeed

It may seem a hollow statement on the surface considering early reviews are falling over themselves to praise the brilliance of Kojima and Konami but Metal Gear Solid 4 is about to make a bold statement, whether it knows it or not.
This is not about "saving" the PlayStation brand with the triple A, killer app title that the PS3 so desperately needs, this is going to be a statement about gaming. This isn't even going to be about fresh ideas in gaming because, despite MGS4's new innovations, it is merely building on a winning formula set out by it's predessors.

This, is about preserving the hardcore gaming market. Ever since the Wii and DS consoles have burst onto the scene, the casual gaming market has boomed. Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Brain Training are just a few names you can throw down of casual games and, don't get me wrong, they're great.

However, game developers have been long instilled with the bad habit of seeing a great unique idea and coping it, usually badly, and beating to death. Two easy examples are Resident Evil 4 and Grand Theft Auto 3. Honestly, how many more over-the-shoulder view games are we going to see? As for GTA, well, let's just say that there will be more clones to come.

Now, taking this into consideration, we need to look at the impact of the casual game. The brilliant Nintendogs has spawned.... Dogz (yes, there IS a "Z" there), Buzz gave birth to Chegger's Party Quiz (how did they think of that?) and, of course, Wii Sports gave way to Brunswick Pro Bowling. Not exactly stellar spawning compared to Resident Evil 4 begating Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto begating almost everything that has a sandbox environment.

Of course there have been some bad clones of hardcore games and some good clones of casual games but there is a balancing act in place between the two markets and either must tipped the other off the edge.

Things seem to be levelling out, post Wii fallout, with a great, and I mean GRRREAT, summer of proper, hardcore games we've had. GTAIV leads the pack comfortably with Mario Kart Wii nipping at it's heels and with as more to look forward to with Metal Gear in 10 days and Smash Bros at the end of the month.

It's these games that need to keep the balance going on the sales charts because, if they don't, people will stop making these brilliant, high production games and end up with poor looking, poor playing games which last for mere hours and have a difficulty curve that looks like a flat line.

HTG Out

Rediscovering Street Fighter II

Today, I was wondering about how Steet Fighter IV might be coming along. With previous comments made that it was going to head back to the fighting style of Street Fighter II, I felt it best to go back to, once again, reopen the box of tricks that is SFII. Well, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on Wii's Virtual Console to be exact. And after playing it for a good couple of hours, I realise how long it's been since I last played it at depth.

SFII pretty much has the right to say that it has helped shape fighting games from over the past with his introduction of the combo system. Even after all this time, the core gameplay still feels as good to play as it ever did. The longer a round drags on, the more the tension builds.
Moves are pretty well defined, there's no weird grey area as in some games where you can get two outcomes for the same sequence on button presses but button mashing can be present none the less.
However, what made SFII brilliant was how it was balanced. I even dare to say some of the best balancing in videogames ever. The distinction between two characters was undenialbly apparent as a fight would develop. One of the most fustrating and tense battles I've had was against Sagat as Ryu.
He generally tends to be a weaker opponent at close range but he can do an energy range attack from both standing and crouching positions as well as his screen-crossing uppercut so getting close to him was going to be difficult. As the battle developed, I realised that if I stayed low to the ground and guarded for a few rounds of these range attacks, he would be open for me to attack with a well placed Hadoken to stun him and then be able to get in close to attack.
It took me 12 attempts to figure that out but it illustrates my point well. Battles could be won and lost by picking the right fighters and picking the right moves.
This has been refined and reworked in other franchises, most of note being Virtua Fighter which, in all fairness to it's hyper-defensive counter attack methods, is sort of like Streets Fighter (look at Akria, Pai and Jackie and tell me that they don't look like Ryu, Chun Li and Ken respectively).
Point being, Street Fighter has long since seen those days and we are yearning for more of the same action once more. With SFII HD Remix also in the works with SFIV, it will be interesting to see which game best recaptures or, better yet, improves upon it's ancestor's greatness.

HTG out!

Welcome to House-Trained Gamer

Welcome to this, my new blog, House-Trained Gamer.
A bit of basic information about myself: My name's Tom Nally aka Naz Dragonheart over the wires and tubes on the Internet.
I've been gaming for over 15 years, seriously gaming for about 12 of them. Over the coming weeks and months, you'll get to find out what games I love and my various passions about the games industry.
Hopefully, I'll try to refrain from the crappy side of it but, it's inevitable that it will come up in conversation but I will promise to ensure obssesive fanboyism is kicked right out of here.
Hopefully, I'll be supplementing these blog posts with some YouTube videos, it'll be a mixed bag of things at first and I'll see what sticks.
Alright, that's a good enough introduction, I hope to here you're thoughts and comments on what kinds of things you would like to see in the blog.

HTG Out