FEBRUARY 2011
: w e i v e R e W
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CONTENTS MINDJACK P18
FEBRUARY 2011
ARCADE HERO 12 INTERVIEW WITH ARCADE OWNER IN DUBAI TO BE OR NOT TO BE 14 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANONYMITY MINDLESS 18 WE REVIEW MINDJACK AMAZING 22 NEED FOR SPEED: HOT PURSUIT REVIEW SCARED? 34 PSYCHOLOGY OF HORROR GAMES FUTURE GUNS 36 BRINK ASSAULT RIFLE HE’S BACK 40 REVIEW: SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WATCH OUT 42 RAZER NOSTROMO REVIEW
REGULARS
SPEEDY 44 NVIDIA GTX 580 REVIEW
EDITOR’S LETTER 07 THE FUTURE IS MOBILE NEWS 08 NEW SONY PSPS LOCHAL ARCHADE 26 KNOW YOUR GAMING: ROGUELIKES LAST WORD 46 HOW FAR CAN SEQUELS GO?
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THE S IN FPS 28 SHOOTERS
INSIDE GAMEWORLD THIS ISSUE... NEWS P8
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EDITOR’S LETTER Publisher Dominic De Sousa COO Nadeem Hood Editorial Director Dave Reeder dave@cpidubai.com +971 (0) 4 440 9100 Group Editor Magnus Nystedt magnus@cpidubai.com @mnystedt +971 (0) 55 883 2009
The Future is Mobile
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Published by 1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA Head Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 (0) 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 (0) 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press LLC © Copyright 2011 CPI All rights reserved While the publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
Just having returned from CES in Las Vegas I’m still trying to process everything I experienced, all the products I saw, all the people I met, etc. What I think there’s no doubt about is that in terms of gaming the future is mobile. No, I don’t think we’ll see consoles disappearing anytime soon. They simply offer, in many ways, such a great experience and they will not be going anywhere. What I think will happen is that we will play more and more games on mobile devices. This is no surprise you say, since we’ve had iOS devices for a while now, growing in popularity all the time, in addition to Sony PSP, Nintendo DS (and soon 3DS), etc. And you’re right, of course, predicting that mobile gaming is going to become more popular is not very hard to do and I even knew that before CES. One thing that has reinforced this view for me is seeing Razer’s prototype Slingblade mobile PC at the Las Vegas tradeshow. In a private demo, a Razer representative booted up the diminutive PC, running a full version of Windows, and started up several current games, including World of Warcraft. The performance was impressive and with the configurable keyboard I can see this being a hit.
Razer made it clear that it can’t say at this point when a finished Slingblade will ship, what it will look like or what specifications it will have, but they added that they’ve been very encouraged by the response. With something like Slingblade there will be fewer compromises to make for gamers. Now you will have all you need in a tiny package that can go anywhere with you. Sure, there are gaming notebooks, like Dell’s Alienware, for example, but even the small 11-inch model is not exactly tiny. Put Slingblade, charger, and a mouse in a bag and you have something small enough to always go with you and remember that this thing runs a full Windows so you can use it for work and productivity too. Microsoft Office runs on the Slingblade as does other applications like Adobe Photoshop. The keyboard is a bit small to type fast and for a long time on but it’ll do for what most of us do with netbooks today. Razer has shown us a glimpse of the future and I can’t wait to see what the shipping Slingblade will look like. And make no mistake about it, now that the idea is out there and the concept has been proven, everyone else is also working on something similar.
Magnus Nystedt Group Editor February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 7
NEWS Sony Announces Next Generation (NGP) PSP BY MOHAMMAD ALHURAIZ
At
E3 last year fans were expecting (and hoping) Sony would announce its next handheld since Nintendo set the bar pretty high with their 3DS announcement (see article on next page). Sony did a pretty good job showing what they had in store for the Playstation 3 and the current PSPs, no such announcement was made at E3. Several months later, rumours have been going around about a “PSP-phone” that got a lot of people worried that there may not be a continuation of the PSP line. On January 27, Sony finally announced the NGP (Next Generation Portable), the successor to the PSP. It boasts many new features in the
hardware department including twin real analogue sticks (not a singular thumb nub like the one on the original PSP), multitouch track pad on the back, a touchscreen on the front, a bright and beautiful 5-inch 960 x 544 OLED screen (compared to PSP’s 480 x 272 pixel screen), 3G, motion sensors (Sixaxis), camera, GPS and a more powerful quadcore processor (and GPU) to pump out some serious graphical power. The game line-up already seems very promising, with Killzone, Resistance, WipeOut, Little Big Planet, Uncharted and Call of Duty being some of the bigger franchises coming to Sony’s new portable powerhouse. But Sony
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isn’t only delivering quality hardware and software, the NGP seems like it’s going to be much more than that. NGP is going to feature a social gaming aspect that lets you see what your friends are playing, where they are and compare scores together, much like PSN. Sony is also going cross platform by working on a Playstation suite for Android platforms running 2.3 Gingerbread to play Playstation 1 classics. The cool thing here is that it’s not going to be exclusive to the controller-toting Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, any Gingerbread-based
device can play these games. There are no confirmations on price and release dates yet. At the event, Sony only announced its cross platforming jump, their new handheld and its many features. This upcoming generation of portable handheld consoles seems very interesting. GameWorld Middle East will give you a full run-down of the details as soon as we learn more.
NEWS
Tahadi Games Introduces Boxed Runes of Might Chapter II
Tahadi
Games has announced the introduction of boxed copies of Runes of Might Chapter II- The Elven Legacy to be available in retail outlets across Saudi Arabia. Customers in Saudi Arabia can find the retail box and payment cards in Jarir Bookstore and in the UAE, customers can turn to Sharaf DG and Virgin Megastores. The retail pack, selling for Dhs 300, includes the complete version of Runes of Might chapters I and II, is available in addition to 1,800 diamonds for Dhs 149. Although Runes of Might is free to download and play, diamonds allows players to customise their character, purchase certain items, and more.
Nintendo 3DS Revealed BY MOHAMMAD ALHURAIZ
It’s not long now until Nintendo’s new portable system is released and you can play 3D games without the inconvenience of glasses. Arrival in Japan for Nintendo 3DS is February 26 and the European and American versions of the system will be follow shortly behind. The Nintendo 3DS boasts tons of features not available on the original DS. For example, players can make Miis (avatars), it will have a new overhauled “eShop” that supplies old console games (Virtual Console to Wii owners), augmented reality using two cameras on the top flap for a stereoscopic 3D effect, and a street/spot pass that lets you exchange friend codes and game related information by just going within the range of another 3DS. It seems like both the 3DS and the NGP from Sony are going for the social networking aspect of gaming, an area into which many other manufacturers have already ventured. This is something to look forward to. Nintendo seems to be pulling out the big guns for this launch. The long
awaited sequel to the Kid Icarus series, a new Mario Kart, Nintendogs + Cats, Paper Mario, Animal Crossing and a rebuilt remakes of both the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64. Other developers are jumping in too, with Konami remaking Metal Gear Solid 3, Capcom is porting Street Fighter IV and Atlus are bringing some Shin Megami Tensei games (incuding a 3D repackage of the strategy RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor). Unlike the original DS that had identical screens, the 3DS’ top 3D screen will be at a 5:3 ratio to hold all the extra pixels for the no-glasses 3D display (840 x 240, 420 x 240 per eye). Of course, the screen will have a switch to turn off the 3D, which can conserve battery life. According to Nintendo, battery life will be 3-5 hours for 3DS games depending on brightness, which has made some gamers worried about how long the battery life will be. Nintendo 3DS will be sold in the US for $249.99.
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NEWS
GamesFest in Dubai BY MOHAMMAD ALHURAIZ Arguably there is an increasing activity in UAE with regards to gaming, with events like the Dubai World Game Expo, GAMES10 and the upcoming Comic Convention. We can now add one more event to the list and that is GamesFest in the Living Room at Dubai Festival City on January 27. Nicholas Rego, Senior Journalist at MEGamers, is the man behind the concept of Gamefest. “We wanted to hold an event where gamers could come in and just have fun playing games, similar to what we do at GAMES each year, but with a more community feel to it,” Rego said. “We tossed ideas around and
whether they were there for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Starcraft 2, Fifa 11 tournaments, or just wandering around, socializing or playing any of the other games. “Positions filled up fast and both tournaments attracted plenty of spectators. Not to mention the Starcraft II tournament saw a ‘swarm’ of expert gamers descend upon the PCs - we’re really happy with how everything turned out so well,” Rego explained. There were a few unreleased games in the event like Homefront, Deadspace 2, DeBlob 2, and MotorStorm Apocalypse. GamesFest visitors had the chance to try out these games 2-3 months before their
“We wanted to hold an event where gamers could come in and just have fun playing games, similar to what we do at GAMES each year, but with a more community feel to it.” decided that GameFest would be a great way for gamers to test their skills in our tournaments, try their hands at some newly released games, as well as get a sneak peek at upcoming games.” GamesFest attracted hundreds of gamers. “We were blown away by the turnout at GamesFest. In addition to the hundreds of gamers who registered online, we took in even more walk-in registrations on the day of the event. The tournaments were a big pull as well, with plenty of gamers vying for spots in the tournaments,” said Rego. Rego told GameWorld Middle East that around 400 people had pre-registered for GamesFest. Everyone who participated in the tournaments seemed to have a good time,
official release in UAE. The organisers had brought some big names to the event including Gigabyte, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Razer, Nvidia and others. “We always take part in game related events” said Allwynn Gaekwad, Area Manager of Prince Computer, distributor of Razer products. “We were demonstrating our accessories for the tournaments like the the Starcraft line of PC accessories and our new 360 controller, the Razer Onza for the Call of Duty: Black Ops tournament. We also had prizes to give away for the tournament winners and participators.” Overall, visitors, sponsors and organisers agreed that Gamefest was a successful event. However, some criticism
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was unavoidable. One visitor, Ahmed Nasir, said that the event was “crowded, noisy and I didn’t get to play anything because the organisers didn’t have anyone to monitor the games and make sure people got a turn on the good games.” Shaikha Al Hattawi, also visiting Gamefest, had a similar view: “Me and my friends were wanting to play Little Big Planet 2, but the people there just didn’t budge. We ended up only playing Mario Kart Wii instead”. Hamda Al Hattawi wanted to try HomeFront at Gamefest but didn’t get a chance to as it was too crowded at that station, she said. But she added: “I had no idea such a cafe existed in Dubai. I loved it and I would definitely go for it if it were an annual thing.” Rego confirmed that he had recieved a lot of feedback from gamers and sponsors on what they though on the event. “we’re certainly keen to host GamesFest again,” Rego said. Concerning the criticism about the crowd and the noise, he added: “The staff at Living Rooms were great to work with and very accommodating to what we needed. Apart from moving some of the furniture around, we wanted to keep the venue exactly as it was to retain the relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.” As always GameWorld Middle East keeps you up to date with the latest gaming related happenings in the region, keep an eye on gameworldme.net for the latest updates.
ARCADE HERO: INTERVIEW WITH ARCADE OWNER IN DUBAI BY MOHAMMAD ALHURAIZ
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Arcades
have been something many video game players are familiar with. In a time when consoles had an electronic sophistication equal to a toaster, the more powerful machines were usually found in arcades. A little gaming history lesson to all our FPS heroes and generic space marine fetishists, arcades were small, (usually) dimly lit shops with large arcade game cabinets, and mostly quick-action games. But arcades were also a dream haven for fighting game enthusiasts, which forms the basis of the arcades’ social scene. To our luck, an arcade still exists right here in the United Arab Emirates. At the back of the small and humble Mizhar Mall (in Mizhar), you will find a small billiards place known as Billiard Planet, to which people come play billiards, table football (or “baby-foot” as it is popularly called in this part of the world), PC network games or a game of King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, a game of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, perhaps? And it gets even better: The owner of Billiard Planet is no stranger to us. Owner Hamad Al Merri is in fact active under the name BBSilver on local gamingenthusiast forum LochalArchade. com. Q: How long have you been running Billiard planet? A: We started some time in the summer of 2010, I think 26th of June. We wanted to have it
INTERVIEW
ready to go around the time for teenagers and high school kids to be free from school for the summer so they would come to play some games. It was a good start and well-timed as well. Q: So where did the idea of opening an arcade come from? A: I had the idea a long time ago. I mean I personally wanted to have an arcade cabinet at home. Many even laughed at me for that. Before I brought them to Billiard Planet, I asked my friends and regulars if they would be playing on them if I ever bought them. What happened is that these guys came and played, more people followed, and I ended up playing with them too. Q: What arcade games do you have running in your cabinets? A: For the arcades, we have three games: King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, and Blue Elf (306 arcade games in one). The problem with the Blue Elf though is that it was suffering from lag, some of the games would work just fine while others lag. Blue Elf didn’t get that popular, so I took it off temporarily until I get a new cabinet that will run it better. I’m planning to bring new games like Samurai Showdowm VI, Fist of the North Star (the fighting game). I am also thinking of getting King of Fighters XI, but the guys don’t seem very excited with it. Also had thoughts of bringing King of Fighters XIII over too and lastly Capcom VS. SNK 2. The guys showed a lot of excitement for it but I’m not sure. I was thinking of getting Super Street Fighter 4 into the mix, but
that cabinet is way too expensive right now, and I don’t want to make players pay like Dhs 4-5 per game just to play it. Q: Do you face problems maintaining your arcade? A: I did suffer in the beginning. It’s actually not that hard, but you do tend to worry if you do something wrong. I hired a technician who is a mobile phone repair guy and he’s been great working with us. I had another one before who had unreasonable pricing. Q: What’s your personal favorite among the arcade games you have in your arcade? A: I do play a lot with the people playing in the arcades, but I probably play Street Fighter the most because all the regulars are better than me in King of Fighters. They even ask me to join their tournaments because I’m easy prey in that game, but I can hold my own in Street Fighter. Q: Due to the competitive nature of arcade game players, have you ever considered competitions or tournaments in Billiard Planet? A: People do come and organise tournaments on their own, so some people beat me to it. I do plan to organise some official Billiard Planet tournaments and give out prizes to the winners. This pretty much was the reason why I connected two of the cabinets with two control schemes (single file and 2×2 button layouts) together for King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match so they can play in their tournament comfortably.
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FEATURE
the psychology of anonymity
By examining psychology studies on deindividuation, we look at how anonymity in video games impacts player behaviour. By Jamie Madigan, illustrations by Andrew Yang.
You
may remember a book called Lord of the Flies that you were supposed to read for school. If you at least read the back cover in the few panicked moments before class, you probably know that it follows a group of choir boys who crash-land on an island and have their entire moral system yanked out from underneath them. At one point, a lad named Jack tries to slaughter an animal, but he’s stymied by the last of his civilised self-restraint. Then Jack hits on something. He dons a mask of paint, after which things change: [Jack] looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but an as awesome stranger... He capered toward
Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.Later, after the other boys hide behind their own masks, they take up the book’s well-known chant: “Kill the animal! Call him ‘noob!’ Teabag his corpse!”
Hiding Behind the Handle Well, maybe I’m paraphrasing that last bit, but it’s not hard to see parallels between this frightening display of anonymity’s sway and the behaviour of gamers. Most of us have direct experience with what happens when you give someone a screen name or a forum handle to hide behind, and it’s something that game designers wrestle with. While many certainly choose to retain their civility, others seem to instantly devolve into hyper aggressive jerks,
aggravating trolls, or seething crackpots to whom the word “sportsmanship” is mere gobbledygook. “The unfortunate truth to player anonymity is that most players use it to cause grief,” says John Comes, creative director on Uber Entertainment’s Xbox Live Arcade game Monday Night Combat. “Anonymity gives the illusion of zero consequences and the issues it causes have factored into every game I’ve designed.” This shouldn’t be a mystery, though. Psychologists actually have models of what anonymity tends to do to people because they’ve been studying its effects long before the first person ever rage quit a game of Pong. While little of that early research involved video games, it did employ painful electric shocks, children in Halloween
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costumes, and college coeds dressed up as nurses— sometimes two of those three things at the same time.
You Can’t See Me, Shock and Shove Most research on anonymity has been done under the rubric of “deindividuation.” The term refers to what happens when something lowers your selfinhibition and self-awareness by making you feel like less of an individual. In his book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, psychologist Philip Zimbardo describes an experiment where he had female college students hide their identities under hoods, bulky lab coats, and name tags with impersonal numbers—not unlike a lot of gamertags you’ve probably seen. Compared with students with no such obstruction of their identities, these anonymous ladies doled out longer electric shocks to other women who they thought were taking part in an experiment on the effects of stress on creativity. In reality, the supposed recipients of the 75 volts were actors pretending to be electrocuted. Furthermore, the shocks spiraled up in duration over time so that the anonymous subjects tried to give out
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longer and longer shocks, especially to the one victim who was acting, according to the experimenter, “bitchy.” Some of us may have fantasised about having a button on other gamers’ profiles that says “administer painful shock to this player,” instead of what Comes calls “the omnipresent mute option.” But would you do it without the Internet between the two of you? Before you answer that, let’s consider another example involving elementary school children beating the snot out of each other. In an experiment never published because the original documents were destroyed in a house fire, psychologist Scott Fraser had children at a Halloween party retrieve bean bags from a tunnel in order to win tokens. Some competitive games had multiple kids trying to retrieve the same prize, while other noncompetitive games had children race alone to get a bag. They all started playing the games in normal clothes, and then individually changed into Halloween ensembles that hid their identities before going back for more. When the costumed kids repeated the games, there was much shoving and kicking and kids gravitated towards the competitive versions of the game. Presumably the biggest kid won. Except he wouldn’t have won the most tokens—the costumed children largely ignored the noncompetitive games. They even passed up
chances to win more tokens— an average of 31 tokens in the anonymous condition, compared with 58 in the nonanonymous. By examining this experiment, one can consider the parallels to gaming. When he worked on the MMO Earth & Beyond, John Comes says he spent 80 percent of his time “designing and scripting missions to make sure that some anonymous person couldn’t ruin the experience of other players by griefing. That means players destroying the ship other players were supposed to protect, players blocking exits people were trying to get out of, and so on.” These kinds of experiments, psychologists argue, prove that all it takes is a sense of anonymity and the potential ability to hide in a group to bring on a state of deindividuation. And then you’re okay with shocking, shoving, or ninja looting somebody because you think it’s impossible for you to get the blame. But is “antisocial” our default mode when we bring up a web browser or multiplayer menu? Is donning a virtual version of Jack’s face paint by adjusting the “brow height” slider on a character creation tool sufficient in and of itself to make us punt all morals out the window? Psychologists say no, it’s not. According to recent research on the topic, there are additional factors at play, which redefine the whole issue.
FEATURE
I Can’t See Me. What Should I do? New research on anonymity and deindividuation recognises that anonymous crowds can, in fact, behave in a number of different ways—some of them noble and even helpful. When a person becomes deindividuated, he or she may indeed be less self-aware and thus exercise less self-control over their actions. But, instead of automatically digging into some deep well of venom, the person actually looks to the environment and the group they’re part of for some kind of guidance on how to behave. A recent comprehensive review of the whole body of deindividuation research appeared in the journal Psychological Bulletin. The review confirms that studies where there’s a strong, external message about how to behave were the most likely to elicit the deindividuation effect—but it didn’t always result in antisocial behavior. For example, in one study researchers repeated the electric shock experiment described previously, but had some anonymous subjects dress up like Ku Klux Klan members and others dress up as nurses. The people in the white Klan robes shocked more, while those dressed as nurses—a profession associated with helping and healing—shocked less. Why?
While the people under those uniforms knew they were anonymous, part of a group and likely experienced an “I am not who I normally am” feeling, they still took some of their cues on how to behave from the environment. By understanding the results of this study, it’s not hard to see how expectations were placed on the subjects to behave the way they did when under the influence of deindividuation. The same logic applies to the gaming world. Consider how differently people behave in a competitive multiplayer game of Halo: Reach compared with a cooperative run through a campaign in Left 4 Dead 2. There are different social cues, different game objectives, and different signals for the deindividuation player to respond to.
I Can’t Be Seen…Cool So, good news for gamers and other humans, right? People who lose a sense of themselves may be more likely to go along with the values of whatever group they find themselves in. In the context of video games, however, those values can cover a lot of ground. Escapism and taking on a role that’s otherwise impossible for us to occupy in the real world is one of the main reasons we play games in the first place. Game designers should keep the lessons of deindividuation research in mind when they
create games or community tools by providing cues on how to behave and promote those community members who display the right kind of social cues. John Hopson, user researcher at Microsoft Game Studios and Ph.D. in psychology, says: “I know a lot of people who have never been in charge of anything until they stepped up as a guild or raid leader and learned they had a talent for it.” Gamers can use this knowledge to everyone’s benefit by realising that if they have the courage to stand up and help establish those understood expectations about player behavior. After reviewing these studies on deindividuation, it’s clear that just because you’re wearing a mask doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily act like a criminal. Anonymity in video games may allow people to act in ways not possible in real life, but the spiral can become virtuous instead of vicious.
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REVIEW
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Think of this game as Time Crisis with clunky movement controls and very loose shooting mechanics.
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It
seems like cyberpunk is making a comeback, as evidenced by titles like Deus Ex: Human Revolution on its way. Square-Enix seems to be into this genre as they’re now also launching Mindjack. Mindjack is set in 2031 and you take on the role of Jim Corbijn, an FIA (Federal Intelligence Agency) agent that gets into trouble by killing an under cover FIA agent on the job while being in pursuit of a Rebecca Wiess, a freelance activist. The killing of that undercover agent has caused a stir in the FIA and made it send soldiers after Jim, quickly assuming he’s in league with Rebecca’s organisation without any investigation of the situation. The story isn’t exactly one of the game’s strong points, in fact what’s even worse is the game’s abysmal dialogue; having bad one-liners is one thing, but the game dialogue is almost all irrelevant one-liners.
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You wouldn’t believe how confusing and unnecessary the cut scenes feel in this game. I don’t even understand the characters half of the time. Jim Corbijn is one nothing much more than a Nathan Drake clone (from the Uncharted games) and the developers should have spent much more time fleshing out his character and add more Depth to the dialogue. In my view, character and story should add depth and excitement to the game, and in Mindjack, unfortunately, it doesn’t. MindJack plays much like any game from the Gears of War school of third person shooters. In other words, you play through a level by taking cover and firing at various enemies. Mindjack has one trick up it’s sleeve though and that is that you can hack other people’s minds in order to control them and fight with you. Not that it’s a new idea but it is very rarely done and
it’s quite refreshing to see it adopted in this game. However, I wish it was a little more refined. Jumping out of one character to another can be a bit of a process because there’s this unnecessary pause. The mechanism feels very clunky and not as seamless as one would hope. Movement basics also leave a lot to be desired. Even though movement is a step up from Resident Evil 5 (you can walk and shoot in the same time), walking and running still feels like manning a tank. There’s this pause when you do a strafe move, for example. Managing to hide behind cover can be a bit of a pain as well, which obviously, in this type of game, can lead to a very dead Jim Corbijn and therefore a frustrated gamer. On a positive note, one selling point in the game is “on the fly” multiplayer that lets players jump in and out of a game whenever without
REVIEW
killing your game. I really wish some of the other features in the game were as seamless as this. In my testing, players would log in and leave without interrupting the game. Overall it’s very smooth but not without some rough spots. For example, some doors won’t open without the game host being there. In one online game where I was cooperating with the host, they went ahead and a door got locked because the main player already went through it and I was trapped not being able to do anything since the host was already in another fight. All in all, I don’t think MindJack should be played without the online feature since the game has horrible AI. Enemy troops hide behind pillars and pretend that they can fire at you directly
from behind them. Basically, enemy AI is nothing much to worry about. There have even been several times when I’ve decided to go back in a level and find an enemy still hiding where I left them minutes ago, stuck trying to get past an obstacle. While the game has bold mechanics and setting- I do think cyberpunk should be explored more in video gamesthat I do appreciate seeing in video games, MindJack still needs to have more time in refining some rough spots in many parts of the game. It just feels like it’s released too early without the expected refinements in story, AI, graphics and more. Think of this game as Time Crisis with clunky movement controls and very loose shooting mechanics.
GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: Seamless online play with barely any lag; Interesting “mind hacking” mechanic. CONS: Clunky controls; Unrefined shooting and cover mechanics; Horrible, unnecessary dialogue; Outdated graphics; Mindless computer AI; Monotonous and repetitive gameplay.
2.5
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GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: Gorgeous visuals; Massive map; A lot of game modes to play; Tight controls; Police mode is excellent fun; Solid social online system; Fun online multiplayer. CONS: No local multiplayer.
4.5
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REVIEW
Nearly all Need for Speed games have been good but not exactly ground breaking. So EA gives their Need for Speed franchise a much needed facelift by handing it over to Criterion, the team behind the much adored Burnout series. To call this game a gorgeous looking game is an understatement. Even on a console (I played on a PS3) it looks very pretty. It doesn’t exactly try to be realistic as Forza or Gran Tourismo, but it does a good job pulling off Uncharted’s “stylised realism” that I like very much. Body damage is fantastic too. It’s not anywhere near as good as the one in Forza, but it does manage to have the cars looking extremely mangled. DICE also came into play to work with Criterion in making the huge game map, I had already fallen in love with DICE and they don’t seem to want that love to lessen. If you are familiar with the Hot Pursuit series, you take the role of two opposing factions, the racers and the police. Racers would race and at some points try to run away from the police, while the police chase racers and try to stop them as much as possible. I really do enjoy the police mode, it tickles that part of
my brain that just wants to bully a bunch of douchebags trying to fight their mid-life crisis racing in sport cars in the country side using a massive police modified Lamborghini Reventon. I really enjoyed the excellent police mode, the last one I tried was the old Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit. That had interesting ideas at the time but was completely watered down compared to the craze that’s in this game. You are given a few game modes where you are in pursuit of one car and even in an entire race (which feels more like the one of the modes in Burnout Paradise). Your main objective is to stop high speeding drivers from deviating off the speed limit, and some drivers are more stubborn than others. You are given an arsenal of gadgets to help you capture your suspects including EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) , roadblocks to barricade the road, and more. Helicopters that can drop spike strips on speeders in front of you and keep you updated about the road ahead. There is a social aspect in the game where your scores will be instantly compared with other players on your list of friends and the game will recommend you more people
to compare your scores with to keep your leaderboards fresh. The way it works, each race holds a leaderboard, which will have a list of your friends who own the game and have placed a record in that race. If you beat a record, that friend will be notified that their record has been beat. This feature is not exactly new to game players, but it’s so fleshed out in NFS: Hot Pursuit that it give people with a bad connection (such as myself) the chance to compete with other people. But for those with a better Internet connection, there is online multiplayer which shares all the game modes in the single player game. something I’d like to see as well. While there are many racing games are out there, not all of them seem to hit the right strings as well as Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit does. The excellent police mode you won’t won’t find anywhere, for example. The game is loaded with fun options, it’s easy to play and extremely replayable, especially in multiplayer mode. In some points it does feel like Burnout: Paradise City with a prettier, fresher, tamer skin, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
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2055–2128:
Terran Era: The last days of Earth being home to all of humanity.
2129–2155:
Early Vektan Era: The Helghast colonise planet Vekta.
2156–2199:
Platinum Era: This period marks the golden age of the Vektan civilization, but growing tensions on the planet are leading up to war.
2199–2204:
1st Extrasolar War
2204–2340:
Early Helghan Era: The Helghast are forced to leave Vekta and colonise the inhospitable planet Helghan.
2340–2357:
Helghast leader Scolar Visari rises to power.
2357–2360:
2nd Extrasolar War: The ISA invade planet Helghan.
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February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 25
KNOW WHAT YOU PLAY:
Roguelikes
Know what you play is a monthly article covering niche sub-genres of games that are lesser known. You may or may not have heard of them. Either way, you’ll definitely learn something here. This month I’ll be talking about the earliest forms of role playing games, a genre that literally started role playing video games as a whole. Roguelikes is now a niche genre celebrated by only those who really appreciate its base simplicity.
What is it? Rogulikes is a sub-genre of RPG. Like first person RPGs, a good share of roguelikes are dungeon crawlers. A roguelike game would usually play from a bird’s eye view when you explore a dungeon. The further you explore, the more of the map opens up. What makes roguelikes
RAIZ
MAD ALHU
BY MOHAM
distinctive is that the maps are randomised (for replayablity), death is generally permanent (some games lack that for accessibility), and are commonly hard as nails. Let me explain what I mean by permanent deaths. If you die, you die. If you want to try again, you’ll have to start over from the very beginning. Basically, you only have one life. And just to make things better, you’re more prone to dying than in other games. But since these games have no way to show your death beyond text, the deaths become very entertaining. Picture yourself reaching the very deep depths of a dungeon to find yourself choking on food or stuck to a ceiling for wearing previously unknown anti-gravity boots and
being stuck to the ceiling long enough to die of starvation.
How it all started The name actually comes from the game that started it all; Rogue was a PC game released in 1980. Graphically it was so barebones that the tiles consisted of ASCII (graphics consisting of characters and letters due to the limitation of hardware). From there on, every other game that followed was called “Roguelike” for sharing the same elements. However, many of those games have improved on Rogue’s presentation. Roguelikes, like first person dungeon crawler RPGs, have spawned long running series like Brandish and Shiren The Wanderer (also known as Fushigi No
Lochal Archade is a Dubai-based video game community, concentrating on underrated or underappreciated games. Instead of just covering the latest and greatest, they go out and find good games that may not have been in the headlines. On the Web site www. lochalarchade.com you can find their podcast, discussion forum, blogs and more. 26 | www.gameworldme.net | February 2011
Dungeon: Furai No Shiren). Though completely different, many consider the Diablo series to have a lot in common with roguelikes since the game already has a “hardcore mode” that gives you only one life without any chance of being revived in any way. The Legend of Zelda series seems to have strong influences from roguelikes too, though it leaned further away from it as its success progressed. Perhaps Roguelikes gave birth to the action RPGs that we know today.
RECOMMENDED GAMES: - Shiren the Wanderer (DS) - Nethack (availabile on various platforms) - Sword of Fargoal (iPhone, iPad)
LOCHAL ARCHADE
WHAT ARE WE PLAYING RIGHT NOW?
“To me this game is the best game I have played this generation. Nothing comes close to it. The game boils down to what is most important in games: delivering pure mindblowing fun. Not a single second feels dull in Bayonetta. Every normal boss battle feels like a final boss battle in most games, and the final boss itself is THE most epic thing I have ever experienced in gaming. Stages are all different and have good pacing and structure.� -Crab
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Shooters In order to gain a better understanding of why the shooter genre is so pervasive in video games, we look to esteemed psychologists and authors on the subject for answers. By Jamie Madigan, illustrations by Andrew Yang
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Sometimes it seems like no matter what you’re looking at in a video game, you’re doing it down the barrel of a gun. There are, of course, games with tutorials that can’t be reduced to “shoot it and then shoot it some more,” but violent games in general—and shooters in particular—are enormously popular. Understanding why is an important question that hasn’t gone unnoticed by psychologists interested in video-game violence beyond the typical “does it make us sociopaths?” angle. Some experts even believe shooters help satisfy basic psychological needs.
Try
this experiment: go outside and find some wild animal babies, like wolves and/or toddlers. Got them? Great. Now, watch them play. Many animals, including humans, engage in play fighting where they only pretend to savage each other. In real fights even victors can get hurt, so any risk-free practice is valuable. Of course, no psychologist will tell you that dragon-punching Zangief is going to help you when some bully comes out swinging—but there’s a parallel to play fighting in another part of our imagination that can have real benefits. Consider why, for example, we’re drawn to stories that put us in situations that we’d never want to get ourselves into in real life. Few people really want to flee from a killer, get caught in a roadside ambush, or fight off an alien invasion. So why do we love stories about those things? Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, author of the book How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like, thinks this is related to the way we are only partially indifferent to whether
something is fictitious or real. Even when we know something isn’t real, we still react to it. Bloom believes that just as play fighting gives us the chance to prepare for physically threatening situations, experiencing scary or verboten fictional scenarios allows us to dip a toe into some pretty dark mental waters in order to better deal with real life’s requisite emotional and mental struggles. Left 4 Dead, for example, isn’t appealing because it’s actually helping us prepare for a real zombie outbreak. As Sigmund Freud may have possibly once been misquoted as saying, “sometimes, shotgunning a zombie in the face is just shotgunning a zombie in the face.” Shooters are popular for many reasons—including one as simple as they’re fun—but getting a chance to fulfill the psychological need to practice dealing with danger is a nice bonus. Left 4 Dead is appealing in part because it lets us safely practice dealing with fears of alienation, being attacked by strangers, or our undeniable mortality. By way of an example from a different medium, consider one study by
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psychologists Victoria Cortez and Daphne Bugental who showed kids a video of either a child saving his parents from doom or the parents saving themselves. Those who watched the child play the hero better coped with the idea of a stressful doctor’s visit. I imagine that if the tykes had been able to assume the role of a child hero in a video game, the results might have been even stronger. Taking Control with a Controller Similarly, combat fantasies may help us feel like we’re powerful and capable of controlling our lives. If your parents are splitting up or your employer is having layoffs, you may not be able to do anything about it. But at least you can always fire a fake rocket up some fake monster’s nose and blow its fake head off. Psychologist Cheryl Olson, who surveyed and interviewed more than 1,200 children for the research presented in her book, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, found that children using games to cope with anger or fear were significantly more likely to play violent games. “For many teens
FEATURE
Shooters in my studies,” Olson tells me, “shooting things or characters in a video game—or blowing them up, or running over them with a tank—helped them vent angry feelings.” Playing a Reverse card in Uno or properly aligning jewels in Puzzle Quest might also give a sense of control, but the effect isn’t as powerful as something a little more visceral. But are there additional psychological needs that games help us meet? Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness Researchers Andrew Przybylski and Scott Rigby, who work with game designers, believe people are motivated to play a particular video game based on how well it satisfies three basic psychological needs:
competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Competence deals with a sense of control, mastery, and feeling like you’re making things happen the way you want. A well-designed difficulty curve makes us feel an ever-increasing sense of competence, as does appropriate matchmaking in multiplayer games. Games high in autonomy give you the opportunity to make many meaningful decisions about what goals to pursue and how to pursue them. Finally, relatedness is concerned with a feeling that you matter to other players through social interactions with them. These needs aren’t necessarily unique to shooters, but one could argue that many of the qualities inherent to virtual gunplay create well-worn paths to satisfying these needs. Shooters provide immediate and unambiguous feedback about performance—you see your opponents take damage, and winning a particularly tough shootout or perching at the top of a scoreboard is a simple but powerful indication of your competence. Rigby, who also works at Immerersyve, Inc. where he consults with game developers on these kinds of issues, says: “I’ll often put up a slide with a great screenshot of a headshot, and it always elicits smiles. The smiles here aren’t because everyone is sadistic—they smile because this is a moment of mastery satisfaction that all gamers can relate to. The blood may not be the value component, but is really just a traditional way dense informational feedback on mastery is provided.” What about autonomy? Combat-oriented games offer plenty of that, too. Rigby notes that “when you look at what distinguishes the blockbuster FPS titles from
February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 31
traditional shooters, blockbusters tend to be more ‘multimodal’ in their need satisfaction profile. Great shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, and Half-Life 2 will not only satisfy competence and mastery needs, but will also provide solid satisfaction of autonomy needs.” Just think about all the loadouts to choose from in Modern Warfare 2 or paths you can take through a Halo 3 map. And, of course, multiplayer shooters are built around the concept of relatedness, with the most popular modes putting players on teams to boost a sense of teamwork, opposition to a common foe, and a feeling that their actions impact the success of their teammates. “There’s social status in being, say, a great sniper in a multiplayer game, and gaining recognition as an asset to your team,” notes Olson. And it can even happen in a well-crafted single-player game. But is it the Violence? But how important is the “violent” part of “violent shooters?” To help answer this question, Przybylski, Rigby, and Richard Ryan (professor of psychology at the University of Rochester), concocted a series of experiments designed to disentangle the violence of a game from its ability to satisfy our desires for competence and autonomy. In one study, they modded Half-Life 2 so that some participants played a violent and bloody game replete with firearms and death. Other people played a
non-violent version of the game with the same mechanics and map, but framed as a game of tag where opponents were gently teleported to a penalty box when highlighted with an ingame tool. The results were both versions equally satisfied those basic psychological needs, which predicted how satisfied people were with the game and how much they wanted to play more of it. The researchers concluded that it’s not the violence per se, but the degree to which the games met players’ desires for competence and autonomy. Olson’s interviews of adolescents in Grand Theft Childhood yielded a similar insight that violent video games were neat and all, but what the kids really liked were the challenges, action, and options that came with them. Shooting for the Next Big Thing The studies suggest that shooters aren’t immensely popular simply because they let you “kill stuff real good.” They’re the product of straightforward design choices that tend to meet basic psychological needs. These needs range from letting us dabble in forbidden or otherwise impossible situations in order to chip away at stress, anxiety, or frustration, to letting us scratch psychological itches related to choosing what to do and being able to do it well. The caveat, though, is that this isn’t always the case. “Themes of war
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Shooters
and combat themselves have always had value in communicating personal victory over challenge,” Rigby says. “We believe combat themes will always be a favorite for developers and players. Our hope though, is that by understanding the underlying motivational psychology, developers would also be empowered to not feel chained to blood and violence as their only option.” Or, you know, you could just enjoy a good shooter. It’s up to you.
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HORROR GAMES
WITH THE RELEASE OF DEAD SPACE 2 UPON US, WE LOOK TO PSYCHOLOGISTS AND EXPERTS ON FEAR TO UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY OF US ENJOY BEING TERRIFIED BY HORROR-THEMED VIDEO GAMES AND MOVIES. BY JAMIE MADIGAN
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INSIGHT Horror video games are a bit of a problem. No doubt they’re popular, but this is kind of the problem. “Fear is a noxious emotion,” says Dr. Andrew Weaver, an assistant professor at Indiana University whose research focuses on media consumption and the effects of media violence. “We generally don’t want to experience it,” he adds, “and the aftereffects of viewing particularly frightening media are not something that anyone wants.” So why do people line up to cringe at horror movies and operate game controllers with hands tensed into claws by what they see (or don’t see) onscreen? Psychologists have extensively studied the attraction of horror, though most of the research has focused on films and only recently included video games. But a lot of what researchers are finding can apply to games, allowing players to understand what scares them and letting game designers understand how to do it more effectively. “What scares you?” is a personal question because we all have our own, private fears-bugs, heights, inappropriate anime cosplay, and so forth. But beyond the obvious fear of injury or death, other proven sources of fear exist. Fear of extreme abnormality and disfigurement is at the source of both our fear of monsters and “body horror” that relies on the graphic disfigurement or destruction of familiar forms. We grow even more uneasy when we can recognise a distorted or supernatural form for what it used to be. The Dead Space games epitomise this idea: Fellow humans are horribly mutilated to begin with, and you actually need to disfigure them further by lopping off their limbs. This category also encompasses things that act or move abnormally, like the jerky, scuttling movements of the little girl Alma in the F.E.A.R. franchise. Fear of darkness and the unknown has its roots in biology-we’re visual creatures, and our fear of darkness may be the result of natural selection. What’s that rumbling in the dark? It could be a tiger with a chain saw, so you’d better run.
Alan Wake, for example, focuses on darkness to the point of making the flashlight an actual weapon. Research on “excitation transfer” shows that vague feelings of excitement or anticipation can transfer their emotional wallop when monsters or killers eventually barge on to the scene. This is why ambient noises and spooky soundtracks are so effective, though custom soundtracks do present challenges to game designers. According to
to do it. Researchers say some people just have the right kind of personality for appreciating scares because they’re sensation-seekers attracted to any emotional high, be it from sky diving, shark-punching, or horror films. Other personalities are drawn to situations showing the disruption of social norms in ways that will probably never happen in real life. But perhaps a more encompassing explanation of horror’s inherent
“We generally don’t want to experience [fear] and the aftereffects of viewing particularly frightening media are not something that anyone wants.” John Williamson, the producer and lead designer on Konami’s Saw II: Flesh and Blood video game, “We are required by Microsoft and Sony to allow the player to turn the music tracks off or replace it with the Backstreet Boys or other music of their choice. [Steven] Spielberg doesn’t have to contend with that. Would Jaws be as scary if you were listening to ‘I Want It That Way’ instead of John Williams’s haunting shark theme?” Finally, it matters how much events onscreen are similar to things in real life. We’re not going to tense up watching one pixel menace another pixel, but as visuals and sound improve, the potential for evoking fear increases. This concept also addresses how video games with realistic, identifiable settings and threats can be more frightening. “Older children and adults are much more likely to be frightened by things that could actually happen in the real world,” says Glenn G. Sparks, a professor at Purdue University’s Department of Communications. But why do so many seek this stuff out in the first place? Theories fall into three groups: those arguing that it’s inherently appealing to be in the clutches of the horror genre, those that frame the experience as leading to worthwhile payoffs, and those that say society makes us want
appeal is how it helps us master our fears. This seems to be particularly important for youngsters, who flock to scary media as an ultimately safe way to exercise their emotional chops and deal with real-life scary stuff. “Watching a horror film gives us back some control,” Weaver says. “We can experience an adverse event through film, and we know that it will end. We’ll survive it. We’ll go on with our lives.” Interestingly, this co-opting of horror only really happens if the player or viewer knows that what they see is fake. In one famous experiment, researchers had subjects watch a movie featuring authentic scenes of live monkeys having their brains scooped out and of children-I kid you not-having their facial skin peeled away in preparation for surgery. Just reading this probably makes you squirm a little, and the vast majority of the study’s participants refused to finish watching the films despite that more grotesque movies playing at the theater down the street could outdo those scenes. We seem to need to know it’s fake. Continue reading the complete article online at bit.ly/horrorgames.
February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 35
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February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 37
REVIEW
GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE BY AJ GLASSER
This
quirky adventurepuzzler from Capcom luminary Shu Takumi boasts a charming sense of humor and a unique, if sometimes frustratingly implemented, gameplay gimmick. Calling do-overs is usually the last resort of a sore loser, but the main character in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective has plenty to be sore about in only the first three minutes of gameplay: Shot dead in a junkyard for reasons unknown, with absolutely no memories to clue him in. Fortunately, Sissel (who doesn’t remember his real name, either) has the mystical power to call “doovers” in a way that takes him back four minutes in time before a person’s death. Using magical “ghost trick” powers in the past, he can possess objects and manipulate
them in a way that off-sets the chain of events leading to a person’s untimely end. The only problem is, he cannot work his own magic on himself -- and nearly everyone he comes into contact with over the course of the gwwame winds up dead at one point or another in connection with some big mystery that ultimately lies at the heart of his own death. The premise sounds silly -- especially if you try to articulate it to somebody on public transit who asks you what the game is “about” -- but once the story gets going, Ghost Trick gets pretty exciting, and the solid gameplay backs it up. Each “chapter” involves one to three “ghost trick” puzzles where Sissel must move objects in order to reach an objective or trigger an event that reveals another tantalising clue, plus several explanatory
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cutscenes introducing him to new characters in the plot. Nearly everyone Sissel meets is somehow a part of the big mystery, and most of them have well-written dialogue that keeps things interesting -- even when you have to repeat a puzzle or six. The game only has about three hair-pulling puzzles where you might find yourself rage-quitting (remember to save before you do; skipping cutscenes isn’t an option), and if the mystery hooks you like it hooked me, you’ll stick around until you figure them out. The conclusion the plot hurtles toward you may not be one you saw coming (I didn’t), but the satisfaction of getting there cancels out all the tufts of hair you ripped out along the way working out the tougher puzzles.
GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: Interesting story; excellent animation; well-localised dialogue is actually funny. CONS: Some levels involve more waiting than puzzling; cutscenes are unskippable; story gets preachy toward the end.
4
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Super Mario Galaxy 2 MARIO’S LATEST ADVENTURE OFFERS A TELLING GLIMPSE INTO THE SECRET OF HIS DECADES-LONG SUCCESS BY TAE K. KIM
The
mustachioed plumber made his debut 29 years ago in the arcade classic Donkey Kong, but he’s managed to stay relevant over the course of his entire career and across several generations of gaming. The biggest reason for this lies in his versatility: Mario is less a character and more a platform through which Shigeru Miyamoto and his team can explore and articulate specific design ideas. This is how Mario so effortlessly steps into a variety of roles, whether it’s as a sports star (Mario Tennis, Strikers Charged), a friendly host (Mario Party), or the heroic leading man (the “core” Mario titles). It allows Nintendo a great deal of flexibility and room to experiment in ways most other
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developers can’t. “He isn’t tailored or morphed to fit in with designers’ grand ideas,” the Telegraph’s Tom Hoggins writes. “It’s the other way around. For lesser developers this could be constrictive but for Nintendo’s designers, it’s liberating. They already know how to make Mario move, leaving them free to concentrate on making him fly.” This is what ultimately makes Mario’s latest adventure, Super Mario Galaxy 2, such a successful title: not only does it rely on the proven concepts of the past, it also features a treasure trove of new ideas that are cycled through in rapid fashion, with Mario acting as an anchor point to help gamers make sense of it all. Wired’s Chris Kohler describes Galaxy 2
as “a veritable creativity bomb, a megaton explosion of new ideas,” which also perfectly captures the secret of Mario’s success: 30 years and countless titles later, he is still able to surprise and delight us. Admittedly, Galaxy 2 does recycle many of the core concepts established in the first title, which some critics found lamentable. “Unsurprisingly, the novelty of the outer-space milieu is diminished the second time around,” The Onion A.V. Club’s Scott Jones says. “Seeing Mario soar like a superhero between planets just isn’t as thrilling as it once was.” But even Jones concedes that the disappointment quickly fades: “[O]nce you arrive on said planets, the age-old Mario charm kicks in. It’s confounding how this simple world can evoke feelings of curiosity, wonder, and dread all at once.” The staff of Edge magazine felt the same way, noting “Nintendo handles its busy traditions with poise, finding the best way to incorporate three decades of enemies, mechanics, and audio cues, and always leaving room for a perfect twist.” They conclude by hinting at the frontiers the franchise may still yet explore. “We’ve come so far,
REVIEW GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: An exhilarating reinvention of platformers that constantly challenges its own identity with success, while... CONS: ...the increased difficulty and high proficiency requirement may turn new fans off.
4.5
from stepping on mushrooms to drop-kicking meteors into the heart of the sun; Galaxy 2 offers a new understanding of where we’ve been, [and] a new sense of wonder at where we’ll go next.” 1UP’s Justin Haywald also took joy in the game’s inventiveness, noting how it plays off the foundation of the first game while still offering something new. “[It] takes everything its predecessor did and maintains that urgent sense of wonder and discovery,” he writes, “creating a world that copies its past self, yet keeps the freshness that made it so exciting when the first game debuted two years ago.” He continues, “everything…speaks to a level of craftsmanship that only comes from years of refinement and reinvention.” Of course, every longrunning franchise with a successful track record—GTA, Madden, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy, to name a few—has a set of defining characteristics that permeate each installment in the series; think of it terms of DNA: while each member of a
given family is unique, they all share similar traits. SMG2 definitely bears the mark of its predecessors, but what makes it so interesting is that it also willfully flaunts its heritage as well as the tropes that define the platforming genre. While other titles cling steadfastly to established ideas, Galaxy 2 ventures high above the clouds without the benefit of a safety net. GameWorlds reviewer Benjamin PerLee found this to be the most interesting aspect of the game. “What makes Galaxy 2 such a unique beast, then, is that it demonstrates a clear disregard for the rules as well as the idea of mechanical consistency,” he says. “Galaxy 2 is a constant deluge of fresh ideas that are successful. [It’s] a gameplay experience that charges forward on its own rapidly changing terms. We, the lucky players, are only along for the ride.” That such a gamble paid off—with an aggregate score of 98 on Metacritic, the game now stands as the highest-rated Wii game to date—speaks volumes about the development team’s deft
touch. When dealing with such a storied franchise, the temptation to play it safe is undeniably strong; this ensures that you won’t alienate the dieheard fanbase while also allowing you to mine the established canon for ideas. Nintendo could have easily produced a follow-up that adhered to the traditional sequel formula of “more of the same,” but rather than rest on their laurels—remember the original Galaxy earned its own impressive aggregate score of 97—they reworked the original game design to produce something altogether unique. It’s this sort of entrepreneurial spirit that has allowed Mario to withstand the test of time while contemporaries like Sonic and Crash Bandicoot have fallen by the wayside. Even as times change and a new stable of stars like Master Chief and Kratos emerge into the limelight, Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber is still going strong, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the latest title to showcase exactly why he’s managed to stay relevant for so long. February 2011 | www.gameworldme.net | 41
Razer Nostromo Game Controller BY KHALID ALHURAIZ
Razer’s
Nostromo is a follow up to a similar keypad Belkin made a while back. The first two things that will come to mind when looking at the Nostromo is “ergonomic” and “good looking”. This keypad is essentially what you’d get if you rip apart a regular keyboard, and glue parts of it together in a way that should fit your left hand. You have 14 keys laid out in three rows, with the W-A-S-D movement keys labelled on them, a scroll wheel, a button for your thumb that acts as the Space key, a directional pad, and a button above the directional pad. All the keys are backlit, except for the directional pad and the button above it, and you can turn it off with a switch on the bottom side. The palmrest
is adjustable, so before using it, make sure you set it to what fit your hand. Otherwise, you’d end up hurting your left hand, the complete opposite of what the Nostromo is supposed to do. By just looking at pictures, you’d probably be convinced of how useful this would be in games. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and it’s exactly how I described it earlier: sawed up pieces of a keyboard that got glued together. The only use case for the Nostromo I can imagine is if you have an excellent typing keyboard that’s really bad for gaming, but don’t want to waste desk space on having two keyboards. On to the bad bits. First thing I noticed was that despite having 14 keys at your fingertips, there’s a major lack of keys, so games that
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demand having many keys to be bound to an action are a no go. Second is how useless your pinky finger is. In my case, in a first person shooter or similar games, the finger is on the Control and Shift keys, and I can easily press on either or both. On the Nostromo, however, the pinky finger is only good for one key, and if you want to press the key above it, you’ll have to reach out to it, and move your entire hand in the process. If you use the ring finger to press the key above it, you’ll end up pushing away your pinky finger. Third is the keys around the index finger.The top right key and the one to the left of it are impossible to press without reaching out to them. There’s also the scroll wheel. You have to move your finger all the way to the back to an uncomfortable
REVIEW
position to use it. And even then, why is there a scroll wheel, when ANY gaming mouse has a scroll wheel? A regular button would have been much better. Fourth is what’s around your thumb. You have a big key, which acts as the space key, which is normal. The directional pad is pretty bad, though slightly better than the one on the 360’s controller, and the pad is placed slightly far from your thumb, making it slightly awkward use it. Then there’s the button above the directional pad. You have to move your entire hand in order to press it.
However, the Nostromo isn’t just all bad. The keys are quite lovely to press. It needs a tiny bit of force to press, and as the keys go down, they’re buttery smooth. The keys also have a matte surface, giving a solid feel and softness, while not being a fingerprint magnet. The palm rest has a similar surface, which makes it feel like you’re resting your hand on rubber. The keypad is also nice to look at, and makes you look you mean business in front of opponents (I hope you DO mean business!). The software that comes with the Nostromo is pretty good. If you’ve
tried any software from any of Razer’s hardware, you probably know what you’ll be getting. You can have three profiles, which you can tell you’re on which with the LEDs next to the thumb key, and you can have each key assigned to whichever key you want, or set them as macros. I think the reason why I’m not liking this at all is that my hands are too small for it. I think people with bigger hands might appreciate it more, but even if I did have bigger hands, would it replace a decent gaming keyboard for me? Never.
GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: Good looking; Keys are very good and smooth with a lot of grip; Software is easy to use and offer a lot of flexibility. CONS: Very poor for those with the wrong hand size, which leaves you reaching out your fingers to reach several keys.
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GTX 580
Nvidia GeForce BY NATE RALPH
Nvidia
and AMD’s GPU arms race continues unabated, and the “world’s fastest” moniker hangs in the balance. The latest salvo comes in the form of Nvidia’s latest flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 580. The card sits right at the upper echelons of the graphics card market, aimed squarely at the enthusiasts who will suffer nothing but the best. And they’ll find speed in spades here: the GTX 580 is the fastest singleGPU graphics card on the market today, sailing through our battery of tests with aplomb. Be sure to check out Jason Cross’ breakdown of the new card’s innards, as compared to AMD’s premier offerings.
A Tale of Two Cards A scant six months ago Nvidia released their flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 480. Built on Nvidia’s fledgling Fermi architecture, it was their first DirectX 11 graphics card. And it was quite a beast: a confluence of blistering performance and temperatures that generally topped the performance charts, but ultimately stumbled in light of AMD’s wellestablished DirectX 11 competition. With the GeForce GTX 580, Nvidia quite literally went back to the drawing board. The GPU inside the GTX 480 was re-tooled from the transistor level, as Nvidia worked to mitigate some of the power and temperature issues that plagued the
Zotac Geforce GTX 580 AMP One example of a Nvidia 580-based card in the local market is Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP bit.ly/zotac580
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REVIEW
GAMEWORLD RECKONS PROS: Category-leading performance. CONS: Lacks DisplayPort support.
4
card. As a result, the GTX 580 is quieter, cooler, and relatively more power efficient than its predecessor.
Putting Fermi to the Test We pitted the GeForce GTX 580 against its predecessor, the GTX 480, and AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5970. A note about the Radeon HD 5970: while it is a single graphics card, it’s actually a pair of GPUs, sandwiched together. We’ve chosen to include it as it represents the absolute best that AMD has to offer. Synthetic benchmarks aren’t necessarily a barometer of real-world performance, but they’re handy for getting a solid idea of how cards stack up. This is particularly true for the Unigine Heaven benchmark. This strenuous
DirectX 11 test is laden with geometry-heavy scenes and tessellation -- the Fermi architecture’s bread and butter. The GTX 580 takes a decisive lead, ousting even the HD 5970’s ample muscle. While the Radeon HD 5970 clambers back into the lead on the 3DMark Vantage benchmark, it isn’t ahead by very much -- 7%, on the Extreme setting. That’s not a bad showing from the GTX 580’s singleGPU. Our gaming tests saw a bit more of the same. The dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 maintains a near constant lead, with the GTX 580 nipping at its heels. The Dirt 2 Demo’s results were the outlier here, with Nvidia’s GTX 580 pulling ahead by as much as 80% over the Radeon HD 5870. It maintained a steady lead over the Radeon HD 5970 by up to 40%.
With Great Power, Comes Great Efficiency The GTX 480s chief faults lay in its unwieldy power demands, and Nvidia has gone a long way to rectifying that issue. AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 is (unsurprisingly) the least demanding of the cards we looked at, but the GTX 580 managed to shave 20W off of its predecessor’s idle and full load power ratings. The improvement shows once we take performance per watt into account. The Radeon HD 5970 takes the lead as the most efficient card, but the GTX 580 makes dramatic strides over its predecessor, overtaking even the venerable Radeon HD 5870.
Fermi, Done Right
Nvidia was late to the DirectX 11 game, and the GTX 480 ultimately failed to make much of a splash.
But an extra six months in the proverbial tool shed has resulted in quite a showpiece. The GeForce GTX 580 is everything the GTX 480 should’ve been, but it’s still saddled with some of the same problems. There’s still no answer for AMD’s Eyefinity technology -- if you want to run three (or more) monitors, you’ll still need to pick up a second GTX 580. The GTX 580 also lacks a DisplayPort connector, offering up a pair of DVI connectors and a mini-HDMI port instead -- AMD’s cards offer the full gamut. DisplayPort concerns aside, Nvidia has managed an impressive feat. An unwieldy titan was reforged, delivering a component that outpaces the competition, and earns the vaunted “world’s fastest” moniker.
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LAST WORD
GameWorld’s Assistant Editor Mohammad Alhuraiz has the last word every month. This time he talks about sequels to games, why developers love them so much and why gamers don’t.
HOW FAR CAN SEQUELS GO? Throughout the years my list of favorite games has changed; some games stayed on that list for a long time and some others were merely blips. It can take one simple kink on the storyline to make me lose all interest in a series and sometimes it’s just that I’ve played a game too much. I usually hate to compare video games to movies, but like their linear counterparts, video games can have a tendency to deteriorate when they get sequels. But let’s not assume that all sequels are bad. Take Assassin’s Creed 2 and Uncharted 2, for example. These are two new franchises that started out with much hype, sold well despite a few imperfections, and came back with well revised second versions. In fact, as indifferent as I am about the Final Fantasy series, 12 is among the ones I genuinely enjoyed from that series among games that I really couldn’t care less about. The question is, why do they make sequels? Is it to continue a story? To give fans more of what they want? Or is it just money? The thing with sequels is it can be all of the above. However, I bet that oftentimes it’s just as simple as it’s easier and safer for the developer to make a sequel to a game that is already popular. This is where familiarity kicks in. Let’s say you go to the cinema, not
knowing what movies are on and then realise a sequel to a movie you really liked is on. Chances are you decide to go see that movie because you know what to expect. It is basically a decision you expect to be comfortable with, less risk, and pretty much the same could be said about game developers. With the high demand of production value, it’s become too risky for new intellectual properties to be developed, and when a new one is made they take desperate measures in making sure you buy them. I’m sure you’ve seen “from the director/ producer/team who made game n” on a game box, for example. Sequels can give off mixed messages to the developers too. Despite the mixed reception the recent games in the Final Fantasy series have been receiving, Square Enix still press on to make new games because they believe they’re among the few games that sell from their gigantic RPG catalogue (which had led to the Eidos merge, this is why you see more and more western games being published by Square Enix). The last new console RPG from Square Enix was The Last Remnant and that had abysmal sales. Nintendo is notorious with its sequels too, in fact they don’t shy away from giving other developers their franchises to make new sequels.
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Donkey Kong was given to Rare (Star Fox at one point too) and Retro studios afterwards who made the Metroid Prime series before it was given to Team Ninja to make Metroid: Other M. F-Zero was given to former hardware competitor Sega, and Mario has seen iterations from many developers outside of Nintendo. Sequels can be good but sometimes you wish to see something new from people who have been in the industry before I could mutter my first words as a child. But you can understand it’s how they make a living, especially when production demands are much higher now than before and the global economy had played a big part in making that more difficult.
Mohammad Alhuraiz wishes he could give up his day job to just focus on gaming and other forms of tech. Oh, wait, he has! He likes finding and playing under appreciated games, which didn’t necessarily capture the big headlines. If he’s not hanging out at www.lochalarchade.com you can catch up with Mohammad on Twitter as @asatiir.
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