Back on more solid ground Gaikai have announced a partnership with Warner Brothers Interactive and Turbine to make their MMO’s instantly accessible to anyone playing through web browsers. If you’d like to try out the service for yourself head over to The Lord of The Rings online, and soon Dungeons & Dragons online, for a free trial, bear in mind you only get access if you don’t already have an existing membership and you’re set up to view Genkai enabled web pages.

 Staying within the online community DICE’s CEO, Karl-Magnus Troedsson, has revealed that for the first time on consoles Battlefield 3 will be getting customisable servers, allowing players to customise their multiplayer games in a way PC owners have enjoyed for a long time. He was, however, tight lipped about when this service would be implemented, still nice to have something to look forward to.

 Sony have stated that they have shipped 10.5 million Move units since launch, but that they could have done more to support it post launch, other than jack Nintendo’s concept and tart up the graphics. This trend is set to change though with the announcement of Move developed ‘Datura’ this week to go along with the May release of ‘Sorcery’. Still in camp Sony, their Vita event today has revealed, for Japanese gamers at least, a few new titles; Phantasy Star Online 2 will be fully compatible with the PC version meaning you can transfer your character to play on the move but then transfer all your progress back over once you’re home. Keiji Inafune, the man behind hits such as Mega Man and Dead Rising, has let slip he’s working on something definitely “Inafune-ish”, which apparently should be good enough for us all. June 28^th is the date for your diaries if you’re waiting for Metal Gear Sold HD Collection, western gamers will have to keep holding their breath or break out a copy of Kanji for beginners.

 The developers of Just Cause, Avalanche Studios, will reveal one of their two titles set for release in 2013 at the upcoming E3 in May. No one as yet knows what it is but I can tell you what it’s not, and that’s Just Cause 3. It will be a licensed game but not a movie tie-in, and will revolve around open world gameplay: Just Cause starring spawn?

 Finally, if you want proof of the meteoric heights of Rovio’s Angry Birds has risen to you need only check out the trailer for the new edition: Angry Birds Space. Starring Don Pettit vouching the apps quality from inside the International Space Station!

 Houston we have a problem…

 Speaking of box art Max Payne 3’s is out today along with a proclamation that this will be the developer’s biggest launch for a game. Considering that developer is Rockstar who have launches such as Red Dead, GTA, and LA Noire under their belt this gives you some idea of the clout the licence inspires. No locked down release date yet, some point in May, for console except they will come before the games PC release on June 1^st.

 In response to Game Group’s troubles Paradox Interactive CEO, Frederick Wester, has offered the explanation of Karma for their habit of “bullying people” within the industry. As this is the only comment like this so far who knows if it’s shared by others, after all the real world money I’ve spent there in order to play virtual roles karmically speaking they should pay me virtual money to work there, possibly their only financially viable option, Microsoft Points would do.

 Google, on the other hand, marches forward towards its global dominance with the announcement of GooglePlay, which bundles together all its entertainment services like apps, e-books, games, music, and movies under one login; much like its integrated Gmail accounts.

 Halo 4 will run at 720p, in response to criticisms the series has run at lower resolutions, or upscaled, since the advent of HD; not at the top of my list of concerns when Bungie revealed they were passing the torch to 343 Industries, fans may be more troubled by the inclusion of a perk system, similar to COD, for the series’ multiplayer, but upcoming announcements should “alleviate any concerns” with more in-depth reveals.

 SimCity’s back, at least so far for PC owners, with Maxis back at the helm using the GlassBox engine. With no subtitle or number to place it in the series, the developers are promising a reworked experience for a new generation of players and social sensibilities; so expect things like carbon footprints and climate change to become integral to your choices.

 DLC continues to reinvigorate titles with DICE revealing what the year holds in store for Battlefield 3; three themed packs spread out over the year with the first arriving in June titled ‘Close Quarters’ it ditches vehicles in favour of smaller tightly designed maps for some serious foot soldiering. The second ‘Armoured Kill’ which ramps up the level size, including one map reputed to be the biggest Battlefield map yet, to incorporate a wide selection of vehicles and heavy artillery, buckle up this Autumn.The third still remains closely guarded and is helpfully called ‘End Game’ released at some point at the tail end of the year.

 Final Fantasy XIII-2’s Lightening will get to do some extra questing in May fighting in a slightly revamped manner, anything more Square-Enix are reluctant to reveal right now.

 Sony is rolling out its support for PS Vita, with an open beta for PS Suite, designed to help developers get PlayStation content onto the Vita and other mobile devices, the full suite will be released later in the year for $99. Expect to see the first fruits of this labour appearing around the end of the year.

 Stealing some of Sony’s thunder from their Vita Event tomorrow at GDC, online retailers have confirmed that the likes of Tales of Innocence R, Final Fantasy type-0 HD, and GTA: Vice City Nights will be joining previously confirmed titles Assassins Creed and COD on the Vita. Hopefully we’ll see some new IP’s from PS Suite joining these well established heavy weights.

 Finally from GDC, Peter Molyneaux has stunned people with his announcement that he will be leaving Lionhead after 15 years at the helm. Molyneux co-founded the studio way back in 1997 and, after some high profile releases mainly ‘Black and White’ and ‘Fable’, was bought by Microsoft in 2006. This also signifies his departure from Microsoft exclusivity; he will be joining 22 Cans, a studio founded by Lionhead’s former Chief Technical Officer Tim Rance. “It is with regret” that he is leaving but is optimistic about the future and remains proud of the work he and his team have produced.

 And on that bombshell that’s all she wrote.

 This follows their earlier news that they would not be selling Mass Effect 3 either, whose reviews have started going live today; critics are giving almost universal praise for Biowares conclusion to its sci-fi trilogy. So without reviewing it and thus giving away any spoilers, it seems assured there’s little chance for disappointment. If you’re finding it difficult to find a copy, or get your pre-order deposit back from Game, you can download Mass Effect Infiltrator for iOS to tide you over, which goes live today for £4.99/E5.49, or $6.99 depending on where you are in the world when you head over to the App Store.

 From Xbox games migrating to iOS and vice versa: Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja Kinect has reached 1million downloads from XBLA in just 7 months since its release last August. With this kind of success don’t be surprised to see a lot more cross service releases taking place in the future; this could be one of the final nails in Microsoft’s vision for the rebirth of bedroom development.

 For a vision of one possible future of that service, and perhaps our own apocalyptic destiny, check out ‘I Am Alive’ from Ubisoft released tomorrow on XBLA for the princely sum of 1200 Microsoft Points. To whet your appetites a new trailer for the game was released today. 

 As for good old fashioned hard disc media Ubisoft have revealed that Assassins Creed 3 will have not only competitive multiplayer but co-op for 2-4 players; although there’s a bit of a wait to find out if they’re any good or not as it’s not released until October 31^st.

 Also in for a wait is anyone looking forward to the latest Ridge Racer ‘Unbounded’ as it has slipped from later this month to a rather vague and indeterminate “later in 2012”.

 It’s not all bad though as Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture has set the date for their stylistic zombie chop-em up ‘Lollipop Chainsaw’ as June 12^th in North America and a few days later for us Europeans on June 15^th.

 After crying into their cereals over the sheer volume of exclusive content deprived to them, Xbox owners finally get something to cheer about with the news that they will be getting an exclusive multiplayer mode in Capcom’s ‘Operation Racoon City’ released later this month on March 23^rd. Reportedly described as a variant of capture the flag, if the flag could shamble around and had a penchant for human “braaaiiinnnn”.

 In the world of DLC ‘Gears of War 3’ is getting it’s final map pack ‘Forces of Nature’ on March 27^th; comprising of 3 new levels ‘aftermath’, ‘artillery’, and ‘core’ and 2 old ones ‘Jacinto’, and ‘Raven Down’, making 5 in total. Videos have been released today showcasing each one individually. 

 Following licensing issues ‘Forza 4’ will finally be able to please its Porche loving fans with the Porche expansion pack; featuring 30 new vehicles and 250 new gamer points to acquire over 10 achievements. It’ll be released on May 22^nd for the hefty price of 1600 Microsoft Points, that’s 20 quid to you and me.

 Finally if the above story leaves you feeling jaded about the future of our much loved industry take solace in the fact that there’s some new blood on the scene; EA has founded a new division: EA Gothenberg, a Swedish studio that will be making new IP’s using DICE’s frostbite 2 technology. No news on what they’re planning but they will be recruiting later this week at The Game Developers Conference inSan Francisco.

 A new landmark on the horizon?

 Only time will tell.

Sign up now for a chance to participate in one of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 beta events. Beta Signup is only open for 48 hours so players need to act quickly to obtain a place. Beta sign up closes at 18.00 GMT Friday 24 February.
To sign up or learn more, visit the Guild Wars 2 Beta Page at https://beta.guildwars2.com/

Executive producer of Bethesda, Todd Howard admitted in an interview that the publisher was more than aware of the problems with the PS3 version of Skyrim before release, but stated “only a small percentage” of players would be affected”.

He goes on to to say “The way our dynamic stuff and our scripting works, it’s obvious it gets in situations where it taxes the PS3. And we felt we had a lot of it under control,” Howard said, on the bad memory problem on the platform. He later on goes to say the plan was to tweak the code enough so they could release a patch as soon as possible after the release date.

But unsurprisingly, the fact is the dev team at Bethesda already knew about this “memory situation” on the PS3, many PS3 players where in rage mode.

Funny enough Bethesda could of delayed the realise of the game until these problems was fixed but this would only anger the majority of PS3 gamers than the “small percentage” of gamers that was effected by these problems. But this in fact left PS3 gamers with a broken copy  for almost 3 months so its safe to say Bethesda backfired this one.

Stay classy Bethesda. :/

A new arcade mode is being placed called “Fight till dawn” which tasks players with surviving a full night of brutal onslaughts, ranking up your score for every taken killed. But with weapons such as the flare gun, and new weapons such as a nail gun and a Uzi you should be safe from the onslaught of hell as you pit friends head-to-head to see who the real champion of the light is.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is available now on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 for 1200 Microsoft Points.

Crouched behind a rock, desperately willing my health to recharge, trying to decide which of my few available weapons to deploy against the horde of fuzzy logic driven enemies closing in around me.

The sense of déjà vu comes not from the fact that the makers of this game have stolen wholesale value from one of the most influential FPS’(First Person Shooter) of the early 21^st century. It’s because I am playing one of the most influential FPS’ of the early 21^st century.

Sort of.

That game is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

A remake of the original X-Box classic to celebrate its tenth anniversary with gaming’s general populace.

Remakes have a longer history than you might at first think; Nintendo’s graphical rebranding of Doki Doki Panic into Super Mario Bros. 2 for western gamers way back in 1988, wasn’t even the start of this trend.

Furthermore that particular game went on to be remade again, along with its closest relatives, with a starring role in Super Mario Allstars five years later.

In fact, it seems Nintendo may have a lot to answer for in this respect, after the success of SMA (Super Mario Allstars), a slew of remakes appeared: like Capcoms visual upgrade of early NES Mega Man’s to the Mega Drive.

Not to be outdone Nintendo released Master Quest for Gamecube, a visually identical but slightly reworked version of Ocarina of Time.

Gamecube then enjoyed Resident Evil, completely rebuilt from the PS1 original. This trend has continued today with examples such as Bionic Commando Rearmed, Beyond Good and Evil and Perfect Dark HD available via PSN or XBLA.

Remakes, in some cases, are not the cynical cash cows they may appear to be. In cases like Resident Evil, a series which has been going for 16 years and spanning three console generations, remakes an be the only way to get the full impact of the story, especially relevant in the labyrinth of twists and revelations that is at the heart of the franchises mythology.

Other instances are just chances for new players to experience an older game with up to date graphics. For something like Bionic Commando, where the graphical downgrade in travelling back quarter of a century is to much to stomach, it illuminates gaming’s history in an immediately palatable way.

Does a trip back only a decade present the same chasm?

343 Industries have gone to great pains ensuring that the game plays exactly as it did, this is a graphical overhaul only, as this is the best single player campaign the series has to offer this was a wise decision as even the slightest of tweaks would go on to have wide reaching repercussions in such a delicately balanced game.

Nor, then, does it address the almost Metroid like fall from power that the prequel ‘Reach’ introduced; all those abilities and weapons you spent the game becoming proficient in are stripped away as you spend the remaining trilogy slowly becoming reacquainted with them.

Thankfully this leaves Master Chief playing exactly as he did before but this throws up an unexpected problem. At its time of release Halo:CE was a revolutionary experience, but the more original an idea is at the time of its inception the quicker it grows dated as everyone plunders unashamedly from the source material, making incremental improvements until it becomes staple. Bullet time anyone?

As Microsoft ensured that the original 360 shipped with backward compatibility with both Halo 1 & 2 out of the box, adding an HD suffix in the process, the question is why does Anniversary exist?

Is it to ease us into playing Halo not designed by Bungie by ensuring 343’s first foray is a guaranteed winner?

Or for a market that has now fully accepted online multiplayer in all its guises, the original Halo’s offline vs. multiplayer was built from scratch just 6 months before the games release.

Undoubtedly yes, in part, to both the above.

My thinking is a little more existential; with a film remake there are two ways to go: shot for shot as in ‘Psycho’, with Vince Vaughn of all people, failing to catch the taut suspense, amongst other things, the original excelled in, or something like King Kong which keeps the spirit and story of the original but reinvigorates it with new techniques and technology.

With games it is the opposite, a shot for shot style is required as in Halo: CE A, because a reimagining transforms it into a very different beast as with say the GoldenEye remake.

In the end games, like films, have a central core, a truly great film stays timeless because of the story at its heart and a truly great game stays timeless because of the game play mechanics at its heart.

This is self evident in the reception of classic titles like Bionic Commando Rearmed and the unstoppable force that is the App Store showcasing simple but involving play.

With the vintage revival taking place right now, this seems like an opportune time to capitalise on the visual design of retro games from pixels to polygons, bump-mapping and beyond. Why have developers remaking them, when they could be crafting new experiences?

After all does reading a book on a Kindle make it any better than reading off paper?

In a world of remakes, reboots and reimagining’s perhaps it’s time to consider the reissue.

If you like stories that urge you to play on in order to discover just exactly how the protagonist saves the day, Earth or future then you’re out of luck.
The plot here is thread bare, still the ability to be playing the game 12 seconds after selecting ‘New Game’ is, in this reviewer’s opinion, no bad thing.
Instead Michel Ancel and his team at Ubisoft allow the game to speak entirely for itself as you run, jump and otherwise hare your way around the 60+ levels on offer, uninterrupted.

And what a game.

Writing as someone who used to load his games off a cassette tape I was around when platformers used to enjoy the sort of status that major FPS franchises do today. As such I consider myself a platform gamer at heart and no matter which genre I’m playing I still hold true to their conventions; explore every nook and cranny and try to collect everything on offer.

Rayman Origins offers a chance to relive those by-gone halcyon days, whilst reinvigorating the flavour by incorporating some more recent innovations.

One of the most obvious of these is the beautiful story book graphics. While resolutely 2-D every one of these airbrushed elements has such scope and depth of colour that they combine to make every stage truly wondrous to behold. It’s as if you’re taking a stroll through Ancel’s sub-conscious as he dreams lazily under a tree on a warm summer’s day.

The game tasks you with running through these worlds collecting ‘lums’, the more you collect the more levels you unlock and the greater your rewards; sounds simple enough, but add to this some strict time limits to collect, or hold onto them without being hit, and with each major level containing at least 350 lums this quickly becomes more taxing and requires an intimate knowledge of both the environment and Raymans expanding repertoire of abilities. Thankfully the control scheme is up to the challenge being responsive and fluid to control, laying blame for failure squarely at the feet of the player.

Luckily, the level of challenge is dependant on the player. There’s no need to do much more than get to the end of each level in order to progress, but if you want a real challenge each level contains two secret hidden ‘rooms’ to find, 4 increasingly difficult target number of lums to collect, and once finished each level can be replayed as a time trial with 2 target times to conquer. With each variety of challenge subtly altering the approach to each level and providing genuine replay ability.

It’s here where another recent gaming convention arises: co-op. Any level can be played by up to 4 players simultaneously, with everything collected and discovered going into a shared pot at the end.

The beauty of this system is that you can help each other through the course of the level working together to reach the more difficult locations, or slap each other silly fighting over every lum for bragging rights, safe in the knowledge that it all gets pooled together in the end.

Changes of pace to the standard platforming template take the form of a pastiche to R-type, and other scrolling shooters, as Rayman rides atop a mosquito; these quickly give the source material a run for it’s money though never exceeds them, and during some of the lengthier sections can outstay their welcome, but this is one area of the game which has real lasting challenge.

Always end on a high so we may as well sandwich in the few niggles here; the first is purely cosmetic. As a reward for collecting high numbers of lums the four playable characters can be reskinned. Unfortunately the vast majority of these are for the ‘Teensies’, which have a fairly basic design and therefore have little noticeable difference, unless you have an extensive knowledge as these designs reference Rayman’s past adventures.

Even if you pick alternate designs for Rayman, and his best friend Globox, in a four player game there will always be duplicate characters onscreen, it’s unavoidable, and when the action becomes hectic it can be easy to lose track of who you are.

The age old debate of bosses rears its head again, yes you will have to memorise attack patterns and strike its weak spot when presented, however these bouts are relatively short and few and far between.

A mention must go to the music as well; while not the vogue guitar riffs or electronic dance tracks, it is totally in keeping with the visual aesthetic and sourced from a wide and varied selection of instruments and cultures. One underwater theme is a particular favourite.

Throughout your adventure and towards the end, Ubisoft throws some truly old-school levels your way; these consist of side-scrolling gauntlets that demand lightening fast reactions.

These sections call to mind the abstract tests of pure platforming skill from the more recent Mario’s. Whilst there is less room for freedom of expression here, there is only one set way through, they have the same playful sense of space and orientation, and are just as incredible to watch as you run up walls, dodge saw blades and swing your way through by the seat of your pants.

As these levels have no margin for error each attempt pushes you that little deeper in as you learn the course, the sense of progression is so tangible you can almost taste it.

It’s in this respect that the game garners true praise, the charming visuals lead people to think it’s a game for children but if anyone sits down with it they realise that, like a Pixar film, there is something for everyone with layers of challenge on offer to every skill level, all without needing to resort to a difficulty setting.

A master class in design.

Take note.

Bianca and seanado.

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“Whoa, is this the new Disney movie?” asked my housemate looking up from his iphone to stare at the TV.

“Oh. No, it isn’t.” He replied answering his own question and returning to Ragdoll Blaster.

I smiled wistfully as I too had fallen into the same trap only one day earlier.

Yesterday, in fact.

I am, of course, talking about the Final Fantasy XIII-2 TV ad.

Now anyone could be forgiven for this mistake, in the last few years John Lassiter has done an excellent job of bringing Disney’s CG department up to a level almost on a par with Pixar.

And that music.

Combined with a cursory glance this case of mistaken identity stems from, I think, advertising agencies reluctance to get to grips with the source material.

Now I’ve heard all the arguments for the difficulty of advertising an interactive pursuit through a passive medium, even more so the grumbles of Nintendo trying to showcase 3DS on 2D TV’s. But it’s this sort of dichotomy faced by advertisers trying to demonstrate the advantages of DVD via the technical limitations of VHS, and that can’t have gone too badly because now we have Blu-Ray ads on DVD’s.

Instead it’s this that I take away from every ad: NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY. This, for me, is the crux; gameplay is what it’s all about if I don’t enjoy playing I won’t Continue.

It’s not that Square-Enix don’t make good CG, they have always worked to an incredibly high standard. Their art direction, design and cinematography have always been exceptional; it’s simply technical quality that’s improved in step with advancing computing power. Most of XIII-2’s ad could just as easily be from 15 years ago.

With graphics today going far beyond my wildest boyhood fantasies thanks to the work of hundreds  of coders, designers and artists putting in tens of thousands of collective hours to make a piece of interactive art, why only show a small slice of what the animation team has to offer.

Not that footage of people playing games is necessarily better; Nintendo’s current adverts, while working for their family targeted demographic, have all the style of Microsoft’s ads when compared to Apple’s.

A conveyed sense of what it’s like to play is what’s needed. Driving a car is an active experience but a car ad describes what becomes available when driving; freedom, mobility, status.

Sony has always had strong ad campaigns and their recent Move offerings are a step in this direction; demonstrating the core principals behind these games: social play, mobility, adventure all demonstrated with visual flair and style.

There is one example, however, which in my opinion is the pinnacle so far. OK so it was gratuitous and totally unnecessary and flaunted a budget that would have some indie films green with envy.

This time I’m talking about Modern Warfare 3.

Unnecessary in the sense that the franchise is at the forefront of gaming consciousness, and like Cocaine pretty much sells itself, but vital for setting a new benchmark.

Of course the disclaimer NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY is equally applicable here; even on the highest spec PC the graphics will never approach the photo realism on offer here. However, everything we see Sam Worthington or Jonah Hill do we can do ingame and is not relegated to a cut scene or QTE. There is no confusion as to what you’ll be doing while playing this game.

It references our culture and demonstrates player development from one ad to the next; we get a real sense of what playing this game is like.

It’s confident and brash, not just an ad for one game but an ad for the rise of an entire industry pushing itself to the forefront of mainstream focus.

We are here.

To play.