This blog isn’t supposed to have anything to do with games, but I managed to get myself addicted to Bejewelled Blitz and yesterday was by far my best score; I scored roughly 308k in that game, though I’m wondering how people can get scores of 500k plus in 60 seconds!  Anyway, that aside I’ve also signed up to a new browser game, much like Lord of Ultima (LoU), called Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdoms (MMHK).  It’s quite similar to LoU, except it reminds me more of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, except it’s in real-time.  Sadly, all games of these nature I end up dropping after a few weeks, sometimes months, so I’m likely to get back to Guild Wars and Lord of The Rings Online.  I might have to play a bit of Star Trek Online at some point soon too, seeing as I haven’t played it in a while and I pay for it monthly!  Anyway, still games related but in a different vein, I attended a Joystick Junkies (JJ) party for the first time in at least 3 years!  It was great to go there, although the venue was extremely posh… read that as I’d never be able to go there under my current, normal circumstances!  All that aside though, it was good to get back in touch with Chris as I hadn’t seen him since the second JJ party, the first being back in September 2004 after Game Stars Live… oh, those were the days.  I have pictures up online somewhere of the GSL Event, but damned if I know where they are on Fotki!

Of course back then, I was more obsessed with booth babes and freebies!  Oddly enough though, I was kind of working on stuff back then what would have fit into my current game site project; I still actually have some of the promotional materials from that as well.  This reminds me that I really need to get myself some business cards.  Anyway getting back on track, at the JJ party, I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Livingstone, the guy regarded as the father of Lara Croft (you may recognise him as being involved with Eidos, Fighting Fantasy or the Game Workshop).  Admittedly, I didn’t actually know what he looked like, which happens a lot with me.  I know of people, but don’t necessarily know how they look!  That said though, I imagine I’d have recognised Peter Molyneux and I know for a fact I’d recognise Jon Hare given I’ve met him a few times now!  Anyway, I asked him if I’d be able to interview him for the Gamed Up website and he said yes, so I’m happy about that.  I actually haven’t contacted him since then as I amn’t sure of what to say at present, though I might just send him an email to explain more about Gamed Up.

Given I want to have some features up for the site which will be sometime within the next couple of months (properly), I’m going to approach industry people and ask them if I’d be able to interview them sometime.  I eventually hope to do this on the Gamed Up site proper, even if it’s just a temporary blog on there – indeed I’m putting up the multi-blog system so I can start blogging about games somewhere; given that my games blog will take a different format to the rest of the site, I should be able to get away with using it while the site is still being built! – but for now, I’m going to field interview questions here, so if anyone reading has a question they’d like to ask Ian Livingstone, please comment below, or if you have my email address, you can send questions that way.  Please do title it “Re: Interview Questions” though so I know what it’s about.  In the future I’ll have a dedicated interview email address, but that’s a little time off yet, same for the other email addresses.  Please keep in mind though that I may choose to combine, rephrase or even not use questions to help things flow smoothly.  Lastly, if anyone is interested in Gamed up and either wants to know more about it, or sign up to it, they can comment here or email, and I’ll answer what I can.

I eventually plan on writing a nice long blurb about it, but that’s not going to be for a while yet as I need to think about how to word it, although admittedly I may have to come up with it sooner, so I have something to show people when they ask about it!  Watch this space for details and I’ll get back to you.  At the very least, I hope by the start of November to at least have my WordPress installs in place.  I will eventually be adding my project blog to here as well, but I need another few weeks to sort that out.  It’s becoming increasingly likely as well that this will be my only personal site for a while!  I do also plan on getting back into writing, but for now, that’s limited to games design documents that I’m preparing seeing as Notepad doesn’t quite cut it, no matter what I’d like to think!  I would love to code some sort of reader thingy though, so people can read what I write in a more linear format.  Anyway, that’s something that can be worked on in the future.  I’m going to let people in on a little secret though… I’m designing an RPG with a friend of mine of which we’re using RPG Maker 2003 (it’s simpler to use!) to design a concept with; it’ll be a fully playable game, though the full game mechanics won’t be present, due to the limitations of RPG Maker.  Also what won’t appear is the entire story, given we’d save that for a more professional release.  Still though, it’s better to have something basic down before taking it further… it’s a given the planned mechanics won’t work too well, but at least if nothing else the story, characters and maps can be fleshed out in this manner; it provides a means to see how well the basic components work.

Of course, the issue is that we need to work out how RPG Maker 2003 works although we’re making progress in that regard but we’re gonna make something basic first before expanding upon stuff, so we understand how the engine works and such.  I’ll eventually start a blog with regards to it going but again that’s a while off.  I imagine though that the independent (yet related) blogs will take off sooner than the main site will, which is by no means a bad thing… may as well get something started with it, right? Part of my plans though is to get a blog up for every section I have planned for the site, so there’s at least a placeholder, which saves me from doing anything later, plus has the added benefit of making sure that everything works correctly.  I’ve always been more about function over aesthetics, but in the case of Gamed Up, I really want to site to look professional and have something to show for when it’s up and running, hence why I’m gathering up staff atm, and preparing for interviews early as well.  Indeed, the sections are still being planned but I at least have a small idea of what I want to get on the site, although the list gets bigger as I realise the scope of what I’m doing.

I can’t really say anything else at the moment with regards to it, but I do hope that when it does finally get up and running, it’ll be something amazing… although given that my sites tend to have a slow takeoff, I’m going to have to accept that there might be a small userbase at the start; of course, it will help if I can start tying the site into other sites on my network and also places like Steam, Mypace, Bebo, Tagged, Facebook, etc. just to have some sort of presence there.  I do at least plan to have the site’s internal backbone working soonish, though there is already a clan presence at least; it’s all about the small steps.

http://news.spong.com/article/21176/Sony-No-PS3-OtherOS-Refunds
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/04/19/sony_firmware_compensation/
http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/4/14/sony-refuses-to-sanction-ps3-refunds/

It seems that judging by the above, getting refunds is proving to be a problem.  I still haven’t persued the possibility of getting a refund though it doesn’t look I’d have much luck at present.  There is also mention here of a 3.30 patch and as you can see, there’s no mention of the Other OS (OOS) feature being restored.  I imagine if (and at the moment it seems a big if) it does get restored, it’ll be on the next patch after this one.  Still, it’s madness that Sony pull the plug on a feature that was advertised as a selling point, especially as to actually exploit the security issue in the first place, it requires more effort than all but the most dedicated of individuals are willing to commit to.  Let’s face it, who but the most dedicated would want to open up their PS3, void the warranty on the machine and risk bricking it?  I’m not knocking them by any means, but the point is that only a handful would even consider doing this, so why would it even be considered that serious and issue?

As it stands now, those who want the OOS feature and PSN access have only one recourse, now that the proxy has been shut down (from what I gather) and that is to install the CFW, which is likely to get you banned off PSN.  As much as I’d love to have the option to have the OSS feature, I’m not willing to risk getting locked out of the PSN for it, even though many have most likely been.  It’s shocking that Sony are so willing to stand aside and let people get blocked off from PSN (be it a ban or refusal to upgrade) just because they’re allegedly plugging a security hole very few would or could exploit.  And this comes not long after Sony saying they weren’t going to remove the feature!  This is why I cannot really trust Sony at present.  Another reason for me to distrust Sony has just come up here, seeing as it appears Sony can update the PS3′s firmware without asking!  This really gets me raging!  First of all, they disable the OOS feature and now they say we can download it to your system without your consent?  What the hell are Sony smoking?  I mean seriously… first they said we had the choice of installing the FW update or not and now we don’t?  Consumer rights groups will have a field day, especially as I doubt such a thing is legal.

Before anything is said to me about how this isn’t illegal, let’s put it like this:

Say you have a car that you bought and paid for and thus you own it.  The car is computerised, so the system occasionally needs updating to iron out any kinks, etc.  Now say the car’s computer system currently has a feature that was advertised as a selling point… I have no idea what example to use but say it’s a useful feature to those what would use it and less so for those who don’t (much like the OOS).  Anyway, if you refuse to install this update, the system will have severely reduced functionality in another area more important (such as no PSN access) than the one you wish to keep until you update to the latest firmware.  You could also attempt to install a customised update but due to the way the computer system works, if such a thing is detected, the important feature will no longer work (getting banned from PSN).  Before I continue, I apoligise for non-specific examples in explaining it in terms of a car, but I honestly cannot think of any parallels at present… anyone have any ideas?  Anyway, you have chosen not to upgrade your car’s computer so you can keep the feature because you use it quite regularly, though unfortunately you also used the important feature too, but now you cannot use it because of your insistance of keeping the feature that would be removed in an update.  Of course, that EULA states that the update people have permission to break into your car (while you’re in it) and install the update anyway, regardless of whether or not you consented to it!

The main reason why I used a car though is because some people seem to think that if someone buys a PS3, Sony have the right to force their updates upon people.  Everyone understands that once you buy a car, you own it, not the company… so why is Sony thinking they own individual PS3s?  We paid a lot of money for it (some more than others) and thus we own it, which means no one, not even the company that manufactered the device can tamper with our property.

This brings me nicely to my next point.  I recently started a group on Facebook called “I refuse to buy another PS3 game until Sony restores the Other OS option!” (catchy title, eh?), which at the time of writing has only 2 users, though I’d like as many as possible. I intend to use this as a protest group, as you might have guessed and the idea is to get as many people as possible on it, so I can eventually write an email to Sony and say to them “unless you restore the Other OS feature, this many people will refuse to buy any PS3 games or a PS3, thus causing you to lose out on a lot of money!” Of course, ne recent loophole that came up which I intend to take full advantage of, or at least let others take advantage of is the purchase of second hand games/systems. Why you ask? Well, I may as well explain why I’m not buying any more PS3 games as well. Firstly, Sony makes a loss on every PS3 they sell and make it back on games sales… thus, if I don’t buy any more games (though I have in the past; Rock Band 2 is 2-3 weeks old now – before I found out the implications of this) then Sony will not make any more money. As for buying second hand stuff, the retailer gets 100% of that money, which Sony doesn’t like one bit because they don”t see that money.

So really, when I say I’m not buying PS3 games, perhaps what I should really say I’m not buying PS3 games brand new, or do anything else that puts money in Sony’s coffers; I needed a bit of a dramatic title though so it can stay

But yeah, it seems nowadays that the only way to get big multinational company to listen to you is actually threaten them the only way they’ll understand; through their pockets. If they realise that a significant part of people are angry enough and refuse to financially support them, then they should eventually sit up and take notice…. at least that’s the plan. I’m crap at writing letters so I’ll be essentially needing time to actually forulate a letter, though help is appriciated. Anyway, I’m going to leave this for now and I’ll make some minor updates to this if needs be, and if there’s anything fully newsworthy over the next week, expect another update.

Watch this space.

Update: I should mention as well that I still intend to use my PS3; I own it and I intend to use it fully with the games I have paid for already. the only things I won’t do is buy anything off it or buy any new games for it. I may consider second hand games though. It seems stupid not to use something I have already paid for.

Update 2: Here’s another link about the updating of the PS3 without consent. I love the Penny Arcade strip that goes with it too!

For those of you that already know, or have gotten yourselves up to speed on things just now, not many people actually use the Other OS option.  I mayself don’t use it but I was considering it at some point, though now I haven;t the option to.  Sony’s excuse was apparantly “security concerns”, but essentially that’s like putting a small fire out with a few million gallons of water, when a bucket would have sufficed.  Of course, as a result of the Other OS removal, a lot of people are annoyed though some couldn’t care less.  Of course, this is only scratching the surface of things; first of all, the removal of this option now means that Sony has broken an EU Law; Directive 1999/44/EC to be precise.  As you can see here, someone already attempted to claim a refund from Amazon UK and was successful in doing so.  This sets an interesting precident and certainly one I’m going to both explore and follow through; this blog entry is the second step in that process.  I’ll explain the first step shortly but here’s a bunch of links in relation to the EU law and the PS3 3.21 software:

http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7266&sid=dff956c5372ab577ba5d29f2fd2b7ace&start=180#p37999
http://lists.fixstars.com/pipermail/yellowdog-announce/2010-April/000223.html (Yellow Dog Linux announcement)
http://labby.co.uk/2010/04/playstation-3-ps3-firmware-update-3-21/ (a fellow UK blogger’s post on the update; seems an argument with his wife was caused, oh dear)
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-General-Discussion/PS3-Firmware-3-21-coming-April-1st-no-joke/m-p/10495082
http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/4/9/sony-says-sorry-for-other-os-take-down/ (Sony apoligise, but it’s a bit too late for that now)

My first step was to actually join these 3 communities on FB protesting the removal of the feature.  I’m not sure which one is better, so I joined all 3:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114315258581392 (this is coincidentally where I got my YDL info from)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=108458319185510 (this one I have contributed to and I think it was considered the “best” one, based on a post I read)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107165099316102

With all that out of the way, I’ll continue.  I foolishly installed the 3.21 update as I thought it was a joke and also I’ve been waiting for an update since December so I had hoped it stabilised the system as well.  Alas, it wasn’t a joke.  Going back to the issues Sony now face besides potential lawsuits and being looked at by the consumer protection bodies, they also failed to factor in what the removal of the Other OS option could actually do, such as remove its tax classification as it’s no longer a computer.  They just shot themselves in the foot at least twice!  another issue as well is that if you do want to keep Linux on your PS3, you have the choice not to update.  Of course, you’ll be denied access to the PSN and also be unable to watch BDs or play games that need the 3.21 patch, so people are getting shafted with 2 clear options:

Keep 3.15: Keep Linux, but lose PSN access and ability to play latest movies/games and also not get any important system updates.
Update to 3.21: Lose Linux, but be able to play latest movies/games and access PSN and get important updates.

Clearly, the choosing of one or the other is unfair, especially when you consider that it’ll put people  off buying PS3 games, so between lost console sales, lost games sales, refunds (provided enough do it, the retailers will claim the money back off Sony) and having to pay taxes, Sony have caused themselves to enter a world of hurt, both financially and with their fans.  I noticed that a lot of people blame this GeoHot guy for hacking the PS3, but the amount of effort required to even hack the system is more than what most people are willing to do; it’s really only the dedicated ones who would go this far anyway.  There’s a lot of debate on the issue, especially the reasons for it, but I don’t want to debate them right now.  I’d recommend reading up on that bit yourself, especially as I’m in the process of doing it as well.  Either way, I’m off to game so I can look at getting a partial refund for my lack of Other OS option.  It’s my ultimate hope that enough people claim a partial refund in order for Sony to realise the mistake they’ve made and restore the access; sorry in this case doesn’t cut it.

NB: There is an option to have the 3.21 patch and the Other OS option, but that’s playing with fire as you risk getting banned off PSN for it.  It’s been recommended you don’t do it.  Additionally, you can’t downgrade back to 3.15 once you’ve upgraded as Sony have removed that version!

Update 20/4/10: I’m now aware of the fact that WP doesnt seem to automatically process hyperlinks, doh!  I’m fixing that now though.  I’m going to find a plugin that processing them for me, though ideas are welcome.  I also looked into getting a partial refund from Game, in the store where I purchased my PS3, although the manager there says I’ve to contact Sony about that.  I haven’t pursued this as of yet, due to recovering from surgery but I’ll certainly be seeing what I can do soon.

Update 21/4/10: Embarressingly, I didn’t notice there were a few comments attached to this post.  Of course, in my defense, I was recovering from surgery (the post was made a day before I went in) and was out of it plus didn’t really come back here till yesterday.  The comments are now cleared and should be able to be seen and I’ll be looking back to see if there’s any other comments I missed.

Admittedly though, it won’t help your fingers get used to pressing on the strings… that’s something you’ll have to face later on and they do tend to make your fingers hurt for a while because the strings are pressing into your fingers. I haven’t played with an actual guitar long enough to be able to get protection from the strings as of yet, although the guitar isn’t my instrument of choice at present; that honour belongs to my keyboard (the piano type), which I’ve decided to learn first as it’s a little easier to get into. I’ve actually paid for the learning pack for Synthesia to help me in this goal. It’s much like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the like, but it uses a keyboard or MIDI synthesiser instead. Admittedly, I’ve not touched it for a while now, but my Rock Band jam session has both rekindled the interest and also made me want to get Rock Band as well! I’m looking at getting the Band Hero Super Bundle, which is 100 quid in HMV at the moment, seeing as it has all the instruments I need to get me started, although the drums are a concern; would they be compatible with Rock Band? I know the guitar is compatible, and the mic should be as well, but I’m not sure about the drums. As for why I’m worried about this, I really don’t want to get another set of drums just so I can play all the games! One thing I noticed though that one of my friends would be happy with is the fact that the Band Hero drumkit has 3 drums, with 2 cymbals, I think they are those anyway. It still has the pedal, but that said, I don’t think it would be used as much in Rock Band, so his foot won’t hurt so much!

I will need to get another guitar though to complete the band though. I have been thinking long and hard about getting Final Fantasy 13, which has been out for a while and yes, C&C4 is out now as well but I’ll wait till my birthday to buy that. That’s another game I’m unsuure of, but I need to get it as it’s like a grand finale. Oddly enough, I stopped playing the multiplayer beta some time ago though that was more due to my move as opposed to not wanting to play it. Another thing I need to take back up is ST Online, which again I’ve not played in a while. The issue being though that it’s on my desktop and I need to fit a wireless card to it, given that the ethernet cable is too short, doh! Another game I recently have started to replay is Morrowind which I’ve been tweaking by installing the plugins. While I haven’t properly gotten into it just yet, I certainly think the plugins make it a better game. This is one thing that PCs excel at, that is having a lot of free mods and the like; consoles can’t compare in this case. Except for Unreal Tournament III, I can’t think of any other game that supports extension of its functionality through mods, at least on a console. I’ll delve into that shortly, seeing as I really need to get back to FF13. Anyway, on the topic of FF13, I’m not sure if I should buy it to be honest, as I’ve been reading reviews which state that it’s pretty dull for the first 15-25 hours, and I’ve had a fellow gamer tell me it’s crap. The issue is that I’m not sure if I should spend money on it, or just get the standard edition after it’s come down in price… it would certainly mean I could get Band Hero oin one go, and I do think it’s a worthwhile purchase, at least for the guitar and mic. DJ Hero llooks really tempting as well, on the basis to complete the set, or do something different though I’d most likely spend another 50 to get another guitar. I know this means more space taken up, but I think it’s worth it, especially for the range of options being available to play instrument-wise.

Moving back to PC gaming though, I’ve been thinking about getting Fallout 3 and Oblivion on PC, albeit later on when they’re cheaper. While I have them on PS3, I acknowledge that the PC versions are superior for the fact that they can look better as time goes on when you upgrade your PC, but mainly it’s because of the moddability (is that a word?) of the game, and thus the fact the game has much more longevity compared to its console counterparts. That said however, there’s less farting about with the console versions as while you still have to install them, there’s most likely less to install and there is a minimal amount of setting up that’s needed, such as driver issues or needing more space. I was talking about this in Game a couple of weeks ago, and came to the conclusion that for extended game life, PC is usually the way to go, but for being able to quickly get into the action, a console is better. And for the record, I have a PS3 and Wii though I want a 360 sometime, mostly as a development system however. I held back on getting a 360 because I didn’t want another MS system, although it seems likely that I’ll have to shell out extra money after I get it to get a few things, such as a wireless N adaptor and maybe another hard drive. Either way though, I’m gonna be getting the Elite. I do want to get both the PS3 and 360 versions of a game eventually though, so I can compare. It’s a good excuse for a YouTube video if I saw one!

But yeah, I’ll end this now, though I will say that it takes ages for me to get home… and I’m also wondering if it’s a good thing that I spotted so many police cars on my way home, round the general area I live in…

Another aspect to digital downloads is that the download is just data, meaning you can’t break it! I’ve lost one or two CDs and ended up just buying a replacement, as it seemed to be too much hassle to return it to the developer (the media cost almost as much as the game would have – plus I was in Ireland the devs pointed to the UK which wasn’t that cheap to post to!). At least with this method, people can keep their media safe and also carry it around with them – all that’s needed is internet access. That certainly means less baggage for me anyway, seeing as my laptop weighs a ton! There are a couple of downsides though, at least for me… firstly, although I may physically have a particular game that’s for sale on Steam, I may not necessarily be able to add it. This presents a problem as I have to purchase an entirely new copy of the game for it to be on Steam. For a game like the X-Com collection, this was less of an issue, as I could offset most of the cost by saying that I needed UFO to complete the collection. Granted, it’s just one game, but it does make the overall cost feel a bit less. I also have my eye on the id software collection too, as the value of the games I don’t have are nearly the value of the pack itself.

Decisions like that are a lot easier to make. Of course, one thing I do plan to do is compare the prices of games on Steam over what they are retail. If they’re cheaper or the same price on Steam, I’ll get it there instead. I can’t fully move away from non-digital downloads though as It’s not very practical for me. That said however, if devs like Blizzard are also hopping onto the DD bandwagon, I’ll be happy. The new Battle.net has impressed me so far, and I’ve only just signed up! They now offer the ability to download a digital copy of their games, which is cool. My copy of Diablo 2: LOD seems to be a bit screwy atm, so this is a welcome method of downloading a copy of the media that should work! I think my WarCraft III expansion suffered a similar fate as well. One thing I am concerned about though is the fact I selected US English for StarCraft by mistake. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can understand US English fine, but I’m concerned about the technical issues more to be honest. I guess this just means I have to download a different patch now. Either way, I do appriciate the facility to download my Blizzard games. I’ve also just downloaded a system checker for StarCraft II, so I can opt into the beta, or at least try anyway. Either way, after much grief (the checker told me it couldn’t upload my system info), it uploaded it anyway. Now I’m not sure if it’s because the app is screwy, but I figure it uploaded the data the first time, or perhaps it did it after I moved my PC into my router’s DMZ… either way I don’t think I’ll ever know. But it’s done now, so I can rest easy. That said though, while Googling some ports for the app, I saw someone mention that 400GB is needed to participate in the Beta testing program.

I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but if it is, that leaves me out! Shame, as I was looking forward to playing SC2, but ah well, let’s see what happens.

Funny, but initially, this was supposed to be about my first impressions of the Secret of Monkey Island (SoMI) Remake which was released on Steam, but it changed into a talk about Digital Downloads, including Steam and Battle.net. I was also going to provide a few pictures as well, for inclusion in this post, but I may just knock that one on the head and just post a gallery link on my Flickr instead. Seeing as you’re reading this now, I’ve most likely already done this. The funny thing is that I was gonna let the pictures do most of the talking, seeing as I was only going to sort out a paragraph or 2 for it, as a fairly large amount of people have played SoMI already, be it on the PC or Amiga (yes, it’s that old!). I’ve actually got the original one, along with the sequel – in a dual package – so I’m one of those people who have played it. Admittedly, I don’t remember all of it, and I actually used a walkthrough to help me though certain parts, but the reason why I got this game was due to a couple of reasons:

1) I want to support the adventure games genre, especially the point & click kind.
2) I wanted to see what enhancements they made to the game – more about them a bit later though.
3) I wanted to, so there.

Either way, I am glad I did! For starters, although the game is at its core, the same… new life does get injected into it. One thing that really struck me when I saw the intro was the water effects in the game, some of the best I’ve seen so far. Granted, I’m comparing it to the likes of Unreal Tournament 2004 and Guild Wars, but they are near-enough at that level! Another thing that I was impressed with was the sound and music; the music’s been completely redone to great effect, then we have the original voice actor playing Guybrush Threepwood, which makes it feel right (all the more because he’s a MI addict!). Admittedly though, they have changed his look a bit, but that’s to fit in with Curse of Monkey Island (I had all 4 games at one point but I’m missing Curse), which is fair enough… points for keeping consistant. One thing that does bother me though is the way Guybrush walks in the remake. It’s like he has a walking animation but he slides forwards. I keep on thinking he’s doing a forward moonwalk. In the original, the walking is more smooth, but it’s a minor issue so I’ll let it pass. The game itself is good to play, even though I’ve played it before. It seems more funny with the added voices. Then again, it may also be funnier because I’m older and actually understand stuff more.

Everything certainly makes more sense when you’re older! Anyway, to use something perhaps a little clichéd, it plays exactly like the original and in no way suffers for it either. The original game was a classic and this one is a classic reborn. Granted, there may be a couple of issues here and there, but it’s nothing major to worry about. Another few things I noticed with the graphics, asides from the heatwaves with the lava – another great effect – is that some of the art in the remake differs from the original game. Another thing I should mention as well is that you can actually switch between the classic and original games through the use of a key, and it works seemlessly, pretty much continuing from the second after you switched. There was also no slowdown on my system when it happened either, so I’m quite impressed. It does feel a little disorienting switching between the two modes though, going from high resolution artwork, voices and water effects to the lower resolution, no water effects and very little sound! I’m an old-school gamer though, so it doesn’t bother me per se, it just feels a bit wierd seeing the contrasts. This is also how I was able to notice the artwork differences, because I switched between the 2 modes a fair bit. One major difference you’ll notice near enough to the start of the game is the SCUMM Bar. In the original, there isn’t a lot in the screen, but in the remake, the screen has a lot more going on in the background, such as ships docked and the like.

Changes like that really enrich the game experience, in my opinion. Something tells me that this will eventually end up becoming a full-blown review instead (I’ll obviously be editing certain things out), but as for the bottom line… if you’re a fan of the original Monkey Island, you should get it if you haven’t already! If you’ve never played Monkey Island before, you should get it as it’s a classic game that has aged well over the years, even without the graphical enhancements. The fact it’s been optimised for Windows means that it’s even more accessible to people than it would have been if DOSBox was being used. One thingthat did surprise me though was the size of it, but I suppose the enhancements are no small feat; the original game was only about 5MB, if that. This new version is 2.5GB!

If anyone was curious as to the reason why I tend to do impressions of games as to a full-blown review, it’s because I don’t have a system I can use yet, although that is coming. I wouldn’t consider the above a full review anyway, because although I went through a lot of the game stuff, I didn’t cover everything, as I’m only about 15-20% of the way through. You can’t review a game unless you’ve either reached at least one of the game’s conclusions (if it has multiple endings) or you get so frustrated with reviewing the game (usually that means it’s crap), youdecide to give up and write up whatever you have to work with. Either way, I expect that when the games blogging site eventually comes up, I’d have played the game enough to convert the impression into a proper review, with scores, rating and everything!

The more I think about it though, the more I realise that sticking to a single games blog may not be the best idea, especially for something dynamic such as the games industry. I may just have a blog a bit like this that talks about games in general, then have separate blogs for reviews on different systems. But I digress… I can think about that later on. Either way though, I expect that I’ll be changing my games-related blog entries around to fit them in the relevent sections, though that said, I’d better review what game stuff I’ve written first as it’s bound to need some rewriting, if I’m ripping stuff out to put in its own entry. I may be lucky enough to not have to do that though. Either way, I’ll be keeping the original posts archived, so I have something I can refer to later on if I need to redo the post yet again. I’ll be removing the games-related posts from this blog and transplanting them into my game blog. I will still, more than likely have some crossovers between the two blogs, in that I may talk about gaming and psychology some more, meaning I can post this twice over and hopefully get differing opinions. The reviews and previews can be a separate blog altogether, as I can then accept contributions from others, as they’re not tied to any one person. That said though, I may end up making this a gaming blog site, much like I’d be making Altered Awareness more about the arcane and mystic. So many possibilities really.

Yet again, this blog has ended up having a topic detour, but to my credit I have improved.  I really ought to start getting the games blog up and running, so I’m going to leave it at this for now.  Apologies for the length of the post – it’ll be vastly shortened in the future!

Anyway, here’s a pic of one of the 5000 Sackboys sent out (courtesy of a bloke named Josh who posted the pic on the comments page):

No wonder Stephen Fry went “Aww, bless!”

They’re selling one on eBay for 50 quid, but honestly, as much as I’d want one, I’d not pay that much!  I do agree with many of the commenters saying that they’re very well made.  I hope they’re gonna bring out one people can buy eventually, as I would most certainy get one!  Anyway, here’s hoping that I get my t-shirt.

And before I forget, there’s a new LBP DLC coming out which features stuff from Shadow of The Colossus, arguably the most gorgeous-looking (certainly the most rare!) game for PS2. I happen to have a copy and shelled out 20 quid (Euros, I think) for it a few years ago now. I’ve not properly played it (though I should soon!), but as a gamer, there’s a certain pride in owning the game.  Also, I signed myself up to ScrewAttack, at long last, so I’ll most likely be commenting on there.  There’s a blog on there, like there is with GameTrailers, but I dunno if I’ll be posting to it… I might just use it as a mirror blog for the main one I’ve planned, to get larger community coverage… I’ll think of something!

Anyway, simplicity is why the Wii is popular (I imagine this has its own take on Tetris too), as the games are easy to understand and get into.  I’d even go far as to say that Tetris is perhaps one of the main reasons why some people became gamers.  Of course, you can still see the influence of Tetris in other puzzle games, even if it’s not obvious.  I’m pretty sure that Tetris was in the back of the developer’s heads for games like Peggle and Zuma, to name a couple of games I’ve played recently.  The major influence of Tetris in games like that is simplicity and accessibility, which is at the core of casual games.  Addictiveness is another factor too… how many of you can honestly say you haven’t looked at the clock and thought “just one more game/level and I’ll stop, and it turns into 3 hours?  I know I have had that many a time.  Granted, it may not be towards our birthday game, but it has been towards a game.  Another aspect of Tetris that is also recognisable is the music.  How many of you reading this remember the Tetris music, the A one?  I bet anyone who has played the game remembers it quite well.  It’s like the original Super Mario Brothers song; it’s catchy and hard to get out of your head, although admittedly, there’s not a lot of music in SMB, so it’s all most likely remembered.  For me, anyway the A Song is my most remembered song of tetris, apart from the main theme.  The B Song, while I heard it and know it’s there, I don’t remember quite as much.  I just read up about Tetris and there was a C song too… I don’t remember that at all!

Anyway, although Tetris for the most part is simple, there have been some spinnoffs, clones and sequels, some of which I’m aware of, and others not.  Some of these have brought something new to the table, like for instance Welltris, which was developed by Tetris’ creator Alexey Pajitnov.  This was a sequel to Tetris, albeit with a twist; it was set in a well with a 3D prespective.  I had the C64 version, although I wasn’t able to understand it as I was much younger than I am now.  Either way, this game hasn’t really been mentioned a lot, as the original Tetris and its any clones, on many systems have pretty much taken over.  Also, if you look at the Wikipedia article for Alexey Pajitnov, you’ll notice that 2 years ago, he recieved an award for “pioneering the casual games market”.  This is pretty impressive, given casual gaming ony took off over the past few years or so.   Nearly all games were considered to be for “hardcore gamers”, which explains why there was such a low penetrations of female gamers and also people who don’t usually play games.

These days, this has changed slightly, with the introduction of the Nintendo Wii.  As I have mentioned before, games on the Wii are usually quite accessible to anyone, so the Wii generally has the perception by many gamers as a non-gamers console.  Nintendo systems in general had the perception of being aimed at kids, due to the lack of violent games for the systems, which was in line with Nintendo’s family-friendly image.  If you wanted to play “real games”, you generally had to go for the alternatives, which at the time of the SNES, was the Megadrive; N64 had the PS1 and Dreamcast and the Game Cube had the XBox and PS2 to contend with.  These days though, Nintendo has relaxed those rules in order to appeal to a larger demographic.  However Microsoft’s and Sony’s console offerings have a larger market share.  I can’t say who is currently at the top, as I haven’t checked recently, although I did expect that over the Xmas periods of 2007 and 2008, the Wii would experience a surge of ownership.  I still expect that in 2009, the Wii should again see an increase of ownership, along with perhaps the PS2, as they tend to be cheaper systems.  That said however, the XBox 360 has also come down in price, and also has an arcade model, so now it’s competing with the Wii.  I seriously doubt the PS3 price will be able to go low enough to compete, so the PS2 will be Sony’s offering there, especially as it’s still being supported.

The mobile gaming market, despite being a great place for casual gaming development due to the limited resources on the mobile phones compared to the consoles, is still somewhat of a niche market, although this market has being steadily growing as everyone nowadays has a mobile phone, nearly all of which are Java enabled.  Java-enabled phones are pretty much the major reason why the mobile gaming market is taking off at all, due to Java being a universal language, meaning developers no longer have to develop games for each individual system, which saves them money.  However, despite the mobile gaming market’s growth, it still won’t be as big as the console market in certain ways.  The only competition within the mobile games market would be similar games, whereas within the console market, it’s a bettle between the consoles themselves as well as the games.  There is a battle within the mobile market however, as mobile phone manufacturers try to outdo themselves with developing features for phones.  Even the mobile networks are in on it too, trying to make sure that a particular, new device is exclusive to them, such as the iPhone woth O2, the G1 with T-Mobile and the HTC Magic with Vodafone, to name 3 recent examples off the top of my head.

One thing about the mobile market however is that mobile phones themselves aren’t games systems, they’re tools.  And despite the intense competition between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, it’s practically nothing compared to mobile phone manufacturers and network providers.  For starters, in the UK, there’s at least 2-3 times as many network providers as there are console manufacturers.  Andf there’s a hell of a lot of phones out there too.  It’s very much a cut-throat industry, very much like the video games industry; if you make a mistake with your product, you’re screwed.  The PC market has its own battle, on scale with the console wars almost, though there’s one less competitor, but there’s a duplicity at play; for processors it’s Intel vs AMD and for graphics cards, it’s AMD/ATI vs Nvidia.  Seems that whereever you go, it’s competition, but that’s the nature of the technology markets; one company wants to develop better technology to the others.  I guess it’s inevitable though.  Either way, despite such intense competition, there will always be those gems that stand out, be it gaming or technology and Tetris is one of those.   It’s remained in the public consciousness and the mainstream for 25 years and may it remain there for another 25 at least.

Happy 25th Birthday Tetris.

I’m literally just after finishing watching this video, which my friend Sean (of Spoofscript.com) showed me. The vid is a good half hour, but it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re interested in id Software and Doom. The above link is actually the blog entry, so if you want to watch the video, it’s here: http://vimeo.com/4022128.

One of the things that made me smile and also impressed me was Bobby Prince explaining one of the songs from the “lost episode” of the Commander Keen series; Keen Dreams.   I won’t be looking at that particular song in the same way again, and it has subsequently made me appriciate MIDI music more.  I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but suffice to say, once you listen to Bobby’s explanation while the song is playing, it makes a whole lot of sense… provided you didn’t know that already, that is.

Either way, it’s a fascinating look at id Software in their pre-Doom days and also in general.

Edit: Apologies for the big mess of everything… WP is being retarded and isn’t making proper separations