There Can Be Only One!

WINNER!

Well done to the lovely shiny people at Valve! After extensive polling we have found Sheffield student's game of the year to be -

Left4Dead!

The pie's are in the post. Good luck to anyone who tries to get in on the pies before Gabe Newell.

The poll will remain open, mostly since we can't figure out how to take it down, but also partly to gauge popular opinion on last year's games as they mature over time. What will be the game of the year in six months time? 6 month old pies to be won! Get voting!

Game o' the YEAR

Alright people, with the next issue of the Forge Press we should be printing the editors choice for game of the year (along with boring things like 'Album' and 'Performance' of the year \YAWN/)

What with this being the internet and democratic* and all that then why not cast your vote for your Game o' the YEAR in the poll which should be in the column to the right...

You've got til the end of 2008 to cast your vote, and after the decree shall be put forth, the winner announced, and the developers rewarded with one of Brendan and Sam's fine (but not award-winning) pies.

Go forth and vote!

*democracy not available in: Vatican City, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and the countries in red to be found here.

Honorable Mention!

The spidery fingers of the games page team stretches far and wide; gaming, writing, eating, pie-making and on certain occasion even filmmaking. So it is with certain pride that I can say having been cruelly overlooked in this year's regional pie-making championships, two of our writers have only gone onto garner an 'honorable mention' at the online film festival of the ever respectable Escapist for their latest filmic feature 'Coffin Fodder'!



A heady tale of Britain's greatest 'Rock Band' rockband, the staples of hookers and blow is instead eschewed for the more dangerous vices of headscarves and Buckfast. 'Should You Stay or Should You Go'? Well be sure to hang around longer than the measly 25% Coffin Fodder manage in their ambitious struggle of world-wide renown and Maximum Gamerscorage!

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - X360 Review

‘Have you been playing for a while and still don’t like the vehicle based gameplay? Maybe you need to download Banjo-Kazooie from Xbox Live Arcade instead.’ Believe it or not, that statement actually appears on a loading screen in Nuts & Bolts, immediately creating the impression that Rare are edgy about what people will think of their newest Banjo creation. Their doubts, sadly, are not completely unfounded.

Instead of making the traditional platformer that just about everybody was hoping for, Rare decided to make a game all about vehicle customisation. One can only guess as to why they thought this would work, maybe they were afraid of letting the fans down with a substandard effort. However, some simple research would show that the 360 is overflowing with driving games, and has not a single worthwhile platform game to offer.

The gameplay basically consists of doing the same few quests over and over again in slightly different vehicles. Most missions are either ‘drive from A to B’ or ‘fetch things and return to starting point’, and this gets old really quickly. Sure, there are a staggering amount of possible vehicles to make, but it doesn’t make that much difference, especially early on when all you have is essentially a shopping trolley. Finishing quests rewards you with Jiggies, which unlock new areas and more quests, in the traditional Mario 64 style. The hub of the world here is Showdown Town, where you will find crates with extra vehicle parts to ‘pimp your ride’ (sorry).

The game does have immense possibility, but there’s no real motivation to see it all. The driving feels horrible, the quests are tedious and the constant gaming in jokes thrown at you are pathetic. The most enjoyable aspect of the gameplay was running over innocent animals, in a weird cross of Old Macdonald and Grand Theft Auto. The graphics here are good but unspectacular, and the sound is suspiciously similar to Viva Pinata, as if Rare couldn’t be bothered to change it up a little. Overall, this cannot really be recommended to anyone. There are far better driving games out there, and Banjo purists will most likely be more offended by this than everyone else. A shame, as this was a genuine opportunity to create a quality traditional platformer on the 360.

[Out of Five]

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 5]

Issue 5: Editorial

Every society has to have one thing to unite against to give a sense of strength. We gamers develop our strength, or at least used to, from infamous gaming bogeyman Jack Thompson.

This week it seems someone pitied him and gave him a job. While he can no longer take people to court or send letters to developers mothers telling them they’re very naughty boys, it does seem he will still be around to make snide comments about games on his new post at magazine Human Events.

Most gracefully exploiting the concept of truth it seems in his bio on the site he is a great man responsible for ‘persuading TW to pull rapper Ice-T's 'Cop Killer' from store shelves worldwide,’ then by the looks of things he disappeared from the face of the earth for 16 years until resurfacing in 2008.

Don’t worry though Jack we’ll fill in your crowning achievements. Here’s a few things you missed. Remember when you stormed out of court saying the judge ‘doesn’t have the authority to sit there.’ Or what about the time you were made contempt of court after continual attempts to stop the sale of Bully in shops.

How about the time you harassed a client who was suing you for defamation in an attempt to get the case withdrawn. Don’t forget all those times you filed cases against Rockstar citing the Grand Theft Auto series as responsible for any murder only for them to be dismissed.

Also why did you also forget to mention the 27 misconduct charges you were found guilty of including submitting pornographic material to court or the $43,675 you were given along with being disbarred for life.

Thing is Jack if we’re sad for playing games and simulating murders at least we’ve not ‘pretended’ to be a mediocre lawyer for the last 30 years.

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 5]

DEATH to Party Games on the Wii!

So I got invited to do another a videogames based survey, and instead of commenting on a rubbish Namco game I got to express my BLOODLUST in relation to Wii games.

They started by asking my opinion on the range of games for the Wii

Poor choice I say. Not enough violence to sate the tastes of I, GLOBULAR the BATTLEREADY. Sure I love nothing more than relaxing with the family, playing Wii sports, Mariokart or maybe some poorly implemented party game. But when children have been set to bed I DEMAND GORE, and since the dirth in filmic output from the honorable Van Damme and Segal I have been forced to turn to WII for my BLOODLUST.

Splatterhouse 2 on the Virtual Console has been certain satisfaction, but the mighty Gods know that I need more Gore to sate my needs! Preferably of the 3 dimensional kind!

Very interested! What are these titles you wish to tempt me with?

Well as it turned out it was for the new House of the Dead:Overkill and the delightfully gory Madworld. Both look pretty smashing, and the Grindhouse overtones of the new HotD really do look promising. And I told the kind Sega survey as much, and hopefully they won't start dicking about with the formula.

Hopefully

(by Pete Walsh)

Street Fighter IV - EG Expo Preview

While SFIV isn’t technically the franchise’s first foray into the third dimension, it’s certainly the first time most gamers will have seen their preferred fighters rendered in polygons rather than pixels. Having had a chance to play a few rounds of the arcade version of the game the gameplay remains resolutely locked to two dimensions, the graphics have had a fully 3D makeover. Not that things have gone realistic or anything.

SFIV stays totally true to the aesthetic of its 2D predecessors, with the familiarly exaggerated proportions and improbable physiques we’ve come to love. So yes, those thighs are just as impressive as ever. Beat-em-ups usually need to look fantastic to stand out, and in this respect SFIV certainly doesn’t disappoint, with incredibly detailed and personality-laden stage backgrounds, and stellar character designs (the new additions to the cast sit comfortably next to the old gang).

Plus it’s slick, fast, fun and incredibly well-animated. The entire game has a fluidity that always reminds you why SF still remains one of the most highly respected fighting franchises even after the passage of nearly two decades, and the game now includes all-new animated super finishers for all characters, mastery of which proves an ample (and satisfying, if my opponent’s smirks were any indication) reward for dedication to skill over button-mashing.

Though my time was spent with the arcade version (which is, naturally a joy to play on a fully specced-out cabinet) the more frugal (or reclusive) among you will obviously be more intrigued to hear about the home console and PC versions. Due on February 12 2009, the Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows versions will naturally be graphically identical to the arcade source, and all feature the not-inconsiderable bonus of online play. Like its downloadable companion piece, SF2 Turbo HD, SFIV apparently features clever lag-reducing algorithms that remove the input delays that commonly ruin the performance of even the most hardcore players. PC gamers who’ve used the software (in conjunction with various PC-based fighters and emulators) claim that it works exactly as advertised, even for transatlantic scuffles, so dust off those arcade sticks (or buy one – several are being planned to tie in with the release) as SFIV could spark something of an online revolution amongst fight fans come release in February 2009.

(By Paul Davies)