Battle of the Consoles Find out what we think of the Kinect, Move and the Wii
Reviews
for New and Retro Games
Mario Sports Mix Are more sport games needed?
Exclusive Interview:
Award Winner Brenda Brathwaite talks of 30 years in Game Design and about making a Holocaust game
Artwork by Kirstie Dolphin
May 2011 Issue 39
ÂŁ2.50
Artwork by Kirstie Dolphin
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Gamer’s Ultimate Console Gadget.
Everyone wants to know what console to buy, so we have done the leg work for you, and have pinpointed all the high and low points of the Xbox Kinnect, PS3 Move and The Wii.
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Interview.
with longest serving female designer, Brenda Brathwaite. She talks of being a minority in the industry and how there is a huge demand for female game designers. Also we discuss her new controversial game, The Train, where the characters next stop is at a concentration camp.
Retro Games This month’s edition is focusing on older but still epic games. We were inspired by retro graffiti of Pacman and space invaders in the city of Chester. The office has been howling with laughter looking at Retro classics. Games can be expensive so this month we have reviewed cheaper games, which are a few months old but are brilliant buys. We have a fantastic interview with Brenda Brathwaite to help encourage you fellow female gamers to get into game design
Kirstie Dolphin Editor
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Feature. New game Mario Sports Mix for the Nintendo Wii has been the joy of our office this month, and we have compared it to all the other Nintendo sport games, and discussed if there is still a market for more games like this in the shops.
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Harry Potter Lego Review
Photo by Kirstie Dolphin
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Retro Review. As a special edition about Retro games, we pulled out all the old board, PC and mega drive games to reminisce about the good old days, and show that the classics are still brilliant.
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Hardcore Gamer Review
May 2011
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Review
Battle of the Consoles: Kinect Vs The Move and The Wii By Kirstie Dolphin
T here are many different types of consoles out now,
as well as games. So we have compared Microsoft’s Kinect, Playstation 3 Move, and the Nintendo Wii to help you gamers out.
Kinect We’ve been looking at the Kinect for the past month; it is Microsoft’s latest revolutionary technology for the Xbox 360. It’s hands free meaning you become the controller, and has voice commands and face recognition. I was extremely excited about playing on this new device, though
Photo by XBox
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May 2011
I was sceptical about the fact Microsoft will have a camera in my living room, which swivels around, trying to capture everything like a spy which I’ve welcomed into my home. Though as soon as I experienced what the Kinect can do, I could see why people were swayed from the Wii to the Kinect; with you being able to flick your hand to look through the different menu options, or saying out loud, ‘Xbox Kinect’ will make the console listen to you and will go to any section you tell it too, which is a little unsettling, not only is it watching you but it can also hear you. There are disadvantages to the Kinect, such as there’s a 3 second lag between you and your avatar. Also it will be harder for them to make games to be used this way, but there will be a wide range of games for all the family, though as of yet, there aren’t really that many games for a hardcore gamer, but
Microsoft have said those type of games are coming out shortly. The Kinect doesn’t need any batteries since the remote is you, so will save a lot of money for you. The most amazing thing about this device is you can connect it to your PC, so you don’t even need an Xbox to run it. Once it’s connected to your computer you can use your hand to control your desktop using Windows 7, so you can use it to flick through your pictures instead of a mouse and to do a PowerPoint presentation with. It even lets you play games on your PC, from World of Warcraft to Call of Duty so you can see your guy move on the screen with you.
Use Kinect to control your PC
Move On first look, the Move seemed a chunky version of the Wii, and not as advanced as the Kinect. However, it may look like an icecream cone or a bright coloured lolly pop but it is definitely more than that. It is fast and has a brilliant motion sensor unlike the Kinect. It has similar motion plus feature as the Wii, but it’s already inbuilt into it. The strange colourful ball on the remote thankfully has a purpose, which is to be detected by the PlayStation Eye camera.
Photo by PS3
Therefore if you already own a PlayStation Eye camera, then you only have to buy the Move, which can cost about £35 on its own. What makes the Move different too the Kinect and the Wii, is it allows you to play serious hardcore games. The navigation controller allows you to play games such as Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition and Kill Zone 3. The move works a lot better for these types of games, it allows you to point the controller at the screen and shoot the enemy with excellent precision, as well as throw grenades and take cover. Unfortunately the Move haven’t
Resident Evil 5 and Kill Zone 3 marketed it towards hardcore gamers, and have gone down the Wii route of trying to attract people to the sports side and group games, but these aren’t as impressive as the Wii and Kinect social games, but they are improving on them so they will soon cater for newbie’s, casual and hardcore gamers. The PlayStation Move uses an integrated lithium ion battery that allows you to recharge using a mini USB cable which links to your PS3 system, or you can buy a charging station for the remote. Hardcore Gamer and Game Design student, DuncanTreasure tested out the Move and said: “The Move doesn’t look brilliant and as a 29-year-old man it’s
interested me”.
not something I would want to buy and have in my house, but when I gave it a try it actually is the best motion gadget out right now. The Kinect was a letdown for me, the lag was just too much and became frustrating and none of the games
The Wii Nintendo Wii were the first to have a console like this and they have held the bar high, and pushed Microsoft and PlayStation to do even better. I bought the Wii as soon as it was released in in 2006, and I was completely impressed, however since experiencing the Move and Kinect, the Wii doesn’t seem as brilliant as it once did. It’s a struggle to sync the controls to the console, and takes a long time to sync all four remotes and the control needs two AA batteries which is a huge downfall for the Wii. Once the Wii is all connected it definitely worth the price and time of syncing. My favourite is the Wii Fit, the board costs about £60 but it acts as scales and tells you your BMI and it helps you set yourself weight loss/gain goals.
Playing adventure story games such as Pirates of the Caribbean can become annoying, due to when the character moves you have to move the control (and nun chuck) up and down and when your casting spells; this can make your arm very tired and even sore by the next day. Most games for the Wii are sports related, and they don’t focus on their adventure or shooter games therefore if you are looking for more action games the Wii isn’t your ideal console. The Wii also offers you to link it to your internet for free so you can play games such as Mario Kart online with people from all over the world. It also has a Wii Shopping Channel, News Channel and Forecast channel. Most channels you can get cost money, but you can download BBC iPlayer for free onto your Nintendo, which allows you to watch episodes from any BBC channel from the previous week. The Wii has released an addon called Motion Wii Plus, which clicks into the bottom of the Wii. It detects your movements very quickly and once you’ve created your Mii, it will do the same as your hand movements. It only costs £18, but is not really needed to make your game any better, though is impressive on games such as Wii Resort and Mario and Sonic Olympic Games. It doesn’t play CD’s or DVD’s like The PS3 or the Xbox, which is a downside, and also doesn’t have HD graphics built in, so the quality on the screen is not as good as the other two, but the games aren’t really for huge explosions and Zombie shoot outs.
Photo by Games press
May 2011
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Exclusive Interview
Brenda Brathwaite on Holocaust game
and her 30 years as a Game Designer in a man’s industry Brenda Brathwaite is an award winning female Game
Designer; she has worked in the industry for 30 years for many different companies before being the founder of her own and has produced various games from Dungeon and Dragons; Playboy: The Mansion and now a game about the Holocaust. Brenda talks about the lack of women in the gaming industry, yet there is a huge demand for them in gaming.
As one of few women in the gaming industry what made you decide to go into it and how did you go about it?
I love games. I’ve been playing them since I was a kid; I started from Lego blocks to hardcore gamers. I love social gaming as well and I’m trying very hard to make that more into the public domain. I got into the game by pure luck; I was friends with a girl who happened to be co-founder and owner of her brothers gaming company.
What was your job within that company?
I was only 15-years-old when I started working there, I would answer the phones and tell people how to do something within a game such as in ‘Wizardry’, I had to know everything about the game and if someone asked how to snatch the wizards wand on level 5 I had to tell them.
Has your gender ever af6
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fected opportunities for you? And have you ever felt discriminated against as a female gamer? I was the first woman ever to get pregnant in my last company Cyberlore, and they had had a paternity policy but not a maternity one. They were brilliant about it though and my director was a woman and she made sure I had everything I wanted, so I worked at home for a while and I believe I’m still the only woman to have needed maternity cover at
Cyberlore.
Has your gender been an advantage within the industry then?
I believe many doors have been opened to me because I am a woman and if I was a man I don’t think my career would be this far forward. I even got this interview because I am female, not only because of my line of work. I see many companies searching for women to work in game, because they want a female perspective to attract girl gamers.
“There’s a demand for women in gaming”
You can see companies such as Nintendo and Xbox trying to aim games towards girls and middle aged women, even my 69-year-old mother-in-law plays on the Wii. I believe that women are put off by games such as Grand Theft Auto because of the near naked women in them. They don’t put me off playing a game but I always think where is the gorgeous half naked man (or Zombie) for the women.
Did you suggest this type of thing to the companies you’ve worked for?
Well, when I was working on Playboy: The Mansion, I had to suggest a lot about the women shouldn’t be so dominated by the male characters.
I read the GDC 2011: Social Game Developers Rant Back where you said “we knew that games were games, and that games didn’t shoot people. Real guns and real bullets did”. Could you elaborate on your opinons on this?
It frustrated me when games were blamed for awful events. There is always something to blame, it used to be Ozzy Ozbourne and rock music and now it’s hardcore games. Like I have said games haven’t killed anyone and giving someone that has done a horrible crime the excuse of ‘he must have played GTA or Doom’ is terrible, they don’t deserve an excuse. I would never stop my children playing a game they loved because of the violence in it, because no worse than what they see in the news, on TV and in movies.
You’ve made quite a controversial game yourself called The Train. Can you give a brief explanation what the games about and what made you design it? It is mainly about loading your
players onto the train and trying to get them to the last stop, which the players don’t know is actually a concentration camp. The Cards either get your character to the end quickly or to free them. When the first train reaches its destination the game is finished and the player finds out they sent their character to Auschwitz and every time I’ve watched people play it, no one wants to win. The idea behind it was to teach my daughter about it, she remembers everything she learns in school, but had no real passion or sympathy with what she was taught, so I made a game to help her understand and to care about what happened in our history. This has reflected on a lot of people that has played the game too.
“They
and
Photo’s by Brenda Brathwaite
How do you think the industry can attract women to play games and what puts them off?
characters when they have figured out the aim of the game. It can get quite emotional for the players and even myself.
Train has also been branded as trivialising the holocaust? But what was the point you wanted to get across to the blamed Rock Music players and do you now it’s games think it’s a new way of approaching a difficult subject?
The game has been compared to ‘Halo’? How did that make you feel?
Only one person compared it to Halo and I was shocked me how much she enjoyed it but most people feel nauseated at the end when they find out where the destination is. No one has wanted to play the game again and no one wants to win after the first time. I love watching people play it and seeing them sabotage themselves and other players to save the
”
I don’t think it trivialises it at all. I think this could be a great educational game and the way kids are taught about this kind of history makes it seem like fiction, with no emotion and if people play this game it becomes real to them and makes them see it in a whole new light. Brenda has also ventured into other historical events such as the ‘Middle Passage’ and ‘Oliver Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland in the mid-17th century’. May 2011
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Feature
All artwork by Nintendo
Mario Sports Mix Highs and lows of Wii Sport Games
By Kirstie Dolphin
T here is another sports game out for the Wii called, Ma-
rio Sports Mix. Just as you think they’ve done enough sport games, and that they couldn’t do anymore for that genre. From Wii Resort with Volley ball and frisbee’s; Mario and Sonic Olympic games with swimming, shooting and trampolining; and even Beach Sports with cricket and canoeing. Mario Sports Mix was released in February, but hasn’t sold as much as expected, though with the amount of sport games out already we are not surprised. Having said that, this game is 8
May 2011
completely addictive; the game includes Basketball, Volleyball, Dodge ball and Hockey with small party games as well. At first glance I wasn’t that bothered about playing it, never mind paying £35 for it. Though after playing with three other people, the hours passed by, too fast. We have also looked at all the old sport games that have passed us through the ages and how Nintendo has changed and advanced.
Basket Ball Double Dribble came out in 1987 and was probably the best early
sports games from Nintendo. The animation was undoubtedly awful but realistic for its time. The game was always located in America whereas new Nintendo games are located in a world they created. The Wii is outstanding when it comes to sports especially Mario Brothers. The basketball game on Mario Sports Mix is genius, I have become addicted. It has gone old style and lets you control the characters with your thumbs rather than having to constantly keep moving your arms around. The remote is held horizontal and can direct your character with the arrows, just like the old classic games.
Dodge Ball and Basket ball. All screen shots by Games press
Also the special moves and dunks in Mario Sports Mix are fantastic. Nintendo have added the same game style as their Street Slam from 1994, where you could pull off very fancy slam dunks, super shots, very cool special moves and rebounds. The new basketball game seems a little daunting at first, there seems so much to remember to control your character and then when the game begins especially if you’re playing with friends there’s a lot going on, and it can even be hard to tell who has the ball.
However, after only one game it becomes easy to control, with either one to pass then two for everything else, and a simple one and two to make a special move, and the slam dunk shots are great to see, with ‘Shahblam’ shooting across the screen whilst Yoshi is swinging from the net, it can becomes addictive very quickly. Mario Sports Mix also has a new level and new tournament every
time you play. Whilst playing on the tournament you can take detours and do mini games along the way to the final. The Flower, Mushroom or Star cup may even be stolen and you have to go battle it out to get it back. Whilst playing you will also unlock characters to be able to play them and unlock places to choose to play basketball at. Whilst you get better and achieve more cups, harder levels will be unlocked and the basketball court even gets harder, for example one court is in a scary mansion and the net is on the chandelier and when you score or the opposite team does the lights go off and will only be turned on again with the next slam dunk. There are also other obstacles to stop you scoring such May 2011
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as ghosts will steal the ball and fly around with it and then drop it for any team to steal.
Dodge Ball
Dodge ball is personally the second best game after basket ball on Mario Sports Mix; a game where you can throw a ball at someone, make them fall over and pick the ball back up and do it again, is endless fun. Well, it’s not quite as violent. Though at one point I saw daisy as a woman scorned by Luigi since she kept aiming for him. Though for me, I hated the red Yoshi who stands in the box behind your court, but as long as you’re facing whoever has the ball you can try and catch it. A tip is to wait until their running back to their side of the court and hit them with the ball so they lose energy. In some parts it’s not as good as Super Dodge Ball by Nintendo released in 1989, since there are only three different courts to play at, which are the same for the other game courts too. Whereas in Super Dodge Ball you could choose a court from all other the world and the super shots were amazing, whereas
dodge ball only allows you to use one special move and it’s the same in all the sport mix games. The amount of sport games for Nintendo probably has put may people off from buying the new Mario Sports Mix especially if they’ve bought or played on previous sport games such as Big Beach Games. The first one was bad enough, with the graphics in line with the old Sega games so when I heard they were making a new one I had to try it. But nothing has really changed, the graphics were still awful, along with the Hawaiian tunes. Also the games, cricket, rugby and dune buggies were awful to control, it was boring and I wouldn’t even finish half the games they were so frustrating. Although the sport games should make it great fun alone and rugby and cricket haven’t been done, it’s just a shame Nintendo didn’t see the potential in it if they
More awkward to control than it’s worth - Wii Resort
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Hockey screen shot
spent more time on it, for better graphics and controls for the game it could have been epic; but they rushed it out because it’s become a cash cow along with Wii Resort.
Volley ball
Wii Resort includes Volley ball but again it’s been rushed and it’s more awkward to control than it’s worth. Whereas Mario brothers have done a brilliant job with their Volley ball which is why it’s frustrating when Nintendo put off customers to buy sport games, because some hyped up previous ones have been such a let down, so people don’t want to spend more money incase the game is awful. However, Mario Sport games are definitely worth it, for example Mario and Sonic Olympic games are brilliant and with a few friends you can do a circuit of about 12 different Olympic events which can get your heart racing, it is the second best of the Nintendo sport games, after
May 2011
Mario Sports Mix. Whereas the Nintendo made games would not be on my top ten list. Sport Science Student, Charlotte wood who is a volunteer at the 2012 London Olympics, said: “I play loads of different games on consoles and Mario Olympics is my favourite, the rules are all correct and most importantly it get people active and I hope all Mario Sport games will inspire children to get involves in sport”.
Hockey
The Hockey game is last and unfortunately it’s least as well. I’ve raved about Mario Sports Mix but the hockey game doesn’t live up to the standard as the other games. However, after a few games and once you’ve reached the hard level it does get better, since you then can’t score by constantly pressing buttons like on the normal level. The Mario release date was February 7th 2011, and I believe if they pushed that date back, they’d have had more time to bring up the standard of the hockey game as well as the party mode which is for when you have friends round I assume though the whole game can be difficult for one player and definitely not as fun. Mark Jones, manager of Game in North Wales, said: “We haven’t sold as many Mario Sports Mix games as we had hoped, though we’re not selling many Wii games at all anymore.” We aren’t too surprised by this, however Mario Sports Mix is brilliant, and if you’ve been let down by a Wii sport game before then this will make up for it.
Party Mode The party mode includes Feed Petey, which is located in Daisy’s Garden where once a pink patch is on the ground you have to jump on it to grab the fruit hanging over head, then run over and throw into Petey, the flowers mouth, you can even slam dunk it. This is quite fun, especially on expert level but only because of
the chaos but after a few games it becomes boring. Bob-omb Dodge can also become boring, it’s a quick two minute game and once played it’s probably unlikely to be played again. Though Harmony Hustle can be very funny, you have to catch a certain coloured ball to make a note and with friends it makes a melody. It is much better on hard or on expert and the best out of the party games. Once again the hockey style game smash skate is not very well designed and it is a two minute game. These games are just quick add on’s and probably won’t play them at a party unless it’s 15 minutes long. Though the actual sport games would be brilliant for a party, it would break the ice and help you get to know people and have fun. Mario Sports Mix overall is a fantastic game, Sega has done it again, it is addictive, exciting and competitive; The Best yet. There isn’t much left for them to do now since they’ve covered the Olympics, Kart Racing and now the court games. Though I’m sure they could do a much better version of classic games and even make it a bit more British like Rugby and Cricket, since basket, volley and dodge ball are very American and they may be losing British customers; it’s especially odd that it was released in Britain before America and has done even worse in the USA than the rest of the world. Therefore we think a more British version of Mario Sports Mix would be great; Diddy Kong would be fantastic at cricket and little toad at Rugby.
Party Mode screen shot
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G A Game Review M E Harry Potter Lego Years 1-4 By Kirstie Dolphin
A Harry Potter baby as Lego with a little scar, quite funny, Ron bouncing on a plunger
R E V I E W
is very comical, but Hagrid as Lego is priceless. Hagrid looks hilarious and has the funniest lines in the game that aren not even in the books. The game follows the story from The Philosopher Stone up to the Goblet of Fire. You can be Harry, Ron or Hermione and throughout the game you have to try and gain different spells to unlock new characters. Scabbers (Ron’s rat) can even be unlocked for tasks that are too small for the others to do. The game is worth buying to just see Dumbledore in a pink flambuoyant robe.
“Comical” It can be expensive, in the majority of shops it’s about £32 but definitely worth it since it has four games in one. Tt games haven’t rushed the story so it’s not for four stories into one small game, they’re all full featured stories, meaning the game is epically long, which can’t be a bad thing. There are loads of different puzzles to do such as finding Lego bricks and build them as a picture may show in the room to unlock doors within Hogwarts. Whilst at lessons learn new spells and magical abilities. If you collect all the coins which are called Lego studs through each level you can buy spells at Wise Acres
Photo by Games press
Wizarding Equipment, rather than having to unlock them. Silver is 10 studs, gold is 100, and blue is 1,000 studs. The Lego Studs can also be used at the bank to open locks with the goblin and unlock bonus levels, though it is difficult to achieve golden bricks. Once puzzles are solved, you can access hidden areas within the story where you’ll be awarded a piece of the Hogwarts crest, when you have all four you’ll receive a golden brick. If you don’t want to play as Harry, Ron or Hermione you can customize your own character at Madam Malkins Robes. However, unfortunately there is a pattern occurring in Lego games since we found a bug in the system. This is a regular occurance with Lego games it seems. We spent 20 minutes looking for a way to solve the task and only after looking online we found out certain levels do have bugs, ours was in Mr Flickwick’s class. The only way to beat the bug is to restart the game and do the level again, it should work the second time. Though this can become annoying, we only found one bug on the game and we assure you the bug is being sorted and updates for the game will be available by June. This is our favourite adventure game of the month because even though there is a glitch with some little bugs, it is worth every penny since it’s weeks maybe even months of fun.
Forgotten Classics Game of life
Is simply The Sims board
game, choose to go to university or to work, marry or not, you can even win the lottery. Just spin the wheel to.
Pacman
Stay away from these hungry ghosts and eat your own way through to the next level.
Space Invaders
Epically brilliant, just shoot and aim to destroy.
Scrabble
The best word game still available
Sonic
Do we really need to tell you what Sonic can do!? As one of the biggest characters in gaming, please never forget him.
Photos by Kirstie Dolphin
May 2011
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Hardcore Gamer Review
Hello Space Cadets, this week we have an out of this world Hard Sci-Fi game. Eve Online is a tactical RPG and one of the longest MMO’s still running today and also one of the cheapest. Eve is stunning with visual backdrops, and of the vast darkness of outer space with beautiful Nebulae, stars, planes, Asteroid belts and wormholes. You can purchase Mighty Titans, Super carriers or Battleships and Frigates, for large sums of ISK (the in game currency). There are thousands of systems with five main factions, 4 of which are currently playable, the Minmator, Amarr, Caldari and Gallente. The Caldari is a combination of American and Japenese influence, they are industrial block ships compared to the more sleek Gallente (French) and curved Ammarian (Arabian/Indian) Vessels. The unfortunate Minmatar ships resemble scrap than Space faring vessels. Screen Shots by Kirstie Dolphin Character creation is rather simple, pick a gender then a race, background and finally education. However, the character features and face/ body shape are quite extensive and once in game your chracter can advance through the purchase of specific skills. Character advancement is completely different from most RPG’s rather than killing WPC’s for XP, skills advance based on base character attributes for example, perception, intelligence, charisma, memory and time. Each skill has five levels that take increasingly larger lengths of time to increase. Eve is the largest single shard game ever, meaning 14
May 2011
there are no PVP/PVE servers, and no European or American servers; it is all combined to provide a universe that never sleeps. This is a brilliant game for PC lovers, and hard sci-fi fans. It is a way of life in space, the closest we will probably get.
Bye for now, your Warp Leader, and remember ‘Per Aspera ad astra’ - Through hardships and to the stars.
Next Month... Review: Pirates of the Caribbean Lego Released May 10th 2011 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
With Jenson Ackles from Supernatural, on voice acting for a shooter game developed for PSP as the third in the “Parasite Eve” series.
Photo by gamepress
Review on the new Nintendo 3DS
Photo by Gamres press